So I have hopped many jobs since I left the military.
My skills were/are in high demand, but the job ads have now incorporated completely different skillets that don't quite match mine. So naturally I'm at the end of my career path 10-30 years earlier than expected.
I had secured a job mid 2010s that was in a prime location, pay was very very good, and role was acceptable on paper.
I started the work, tried to sync with the team, even went to their lunches at hooters (tried to repeatedly steer them away from it but couldn't).
Eventually the younger fresh college graduate maybe around 20-21 years old started saying to three other companies in a call we didn't have a (my skillset) on the team.
This would happen with them staring me in the face.
I shook my head, would correct them after the meeting and the leads alongside me wouldn't acknowledge this either.
I went to my functional and asked them why this is occuring, to speak with them and their manager to correct it.
Surprise, they didn't give a shit. The fresh grad was given a golden key to do as they please and I was seen as an issue.
Cut to a few weeks later I had trained the fresh grad on my skillset, but they still said we didn't have someone on the team with it and brought in two expensive reps from a vendor everyone knows to “fill the gap”.
I wasn't informed.
They showed up one morning and were going over what I had been designing/suggesting for the fresh grad.
I was hurt, livid, and most importantly no longer a team member.
I went to my functional and informed them of the wasted funds, man hours, and abusive behavior I was witnessing.
I had stayed to empty humidifiers for them because the HVAC had failed/wasn't enough and two wheeled units were needed.
I had stopped in on weekends to repeat the process because nobody answered their phones.
I had took care of the prototype effort while at the same time I was being excluded from the expanded major work just weeks down the road.
I eventually left there.
I left, for an even worse situation. One where the next place stalked me on discord, got me banned by bullying me until the mods got fed up and instead of stopping the toxic behavior of the group just removed me instead, then proceeded to get me fired at the next place.
I hate this career I had built.
I learned the hard way by enlisting and suffering under two commands that didn't want me around, shops I didn't fit in but busted my ass to ensure the base and it's mission kept going.
I had suffered through a suicide attempt while enlisted because my command then attempted to sabotage my marriage (made me resubmit from scratch paperwork ten times before letting me get married)
I had put up with all of that and more just to be belittled by a brand new engineer at a dream job doing very cool stuff for our country.
My lesson learned is watch your back.
If management doesn't support you, document everything until they fire you or you find better.
When you find better GTFO and get that nest egg built asap because there's always more toxic management, never less.