For context, I work as a QA tester who (currently) does exclusively manual testing. I'm trying very hard to get into automated testing, or possibly move over to Web Development.

At the moment, I've been doing very little. I had been hyperfixated on going "above and beyond" at work, doing close to 60 hours per week when I was only getting paid for 40 since January. I had been hoping that if I had been putting in an excessive amount of effort in terms of productivity, I would get some recognition for it, and more importantly: be given the opportunity to work on professional development things, in terms of, say, classes or training so I could learn more about automated testing. I really want to move towards something more intellectually stimulating the grinding manual process we have - I see so much room to improve. I really just want to learn more things, so I can become a better asset to the my employer, and so I don't feel like I'm just "treading water" in terms of industry knowledge.

Instead of things going that way, I was basically told that doing what I had been doing is... appreciated... but doesn't really change anything, because no one had asked or expected me to do it.

It was demoralizing to get the brush off in that way, but I've decided the best course of action then, is to forge my own way. Do the hours I'm required to do (and do them sincerely well), but put that creative hunger into building a website, building some repos, and finding my own way forward.

At this point, I've already bought a domain. Now I just need to figure out how to build one, and start making some cool stuff.

Its hard to set tone through text... I'm not bitter about what happened, everything they said was technically true. Heck, I'm not even angry about it. It was naive of me to get my hopes up thinking I would get my way, if I put in the effort up front. It just feels... bad to not really feel any kind of positive reinforcement for professional development, or even for working as hard as I’ve been working for the past 3-ish months. In fairness, what they said isn't unreasonable, but it sucks they don't want to invest into me, the way I invested into them.