You’re going to see a lot of shitty code and practices that result in millions or more revenue.

I’d suggest you maintain your knowledge and build upon it for how to build systems that scale both organizationally and from a performance pov.

That way, you can identify which parts can be made better in the existing system without breaking it.

Ultimately, the customer really doesn’t care about the internals as long as whatever they’re using solves their immediate problem. They hold the ultimate card because they will just switch to another service provider if they’re cheaper, even if their product is worse.

So don’t become jaded. Become an expert in systems engineering and work on making things better. When you have a chance to work on a green field project, apply your knowledge there and make a foundation that will outlast your commits.

But realize that the business might toss your perfect shiny approach into the bin if it doesn’t translate into $. Don’t take it personally. Optimize for the best solution given the $ and time constraints.

For example, adding better test coverage might help reduce issues that result in headaches and lost productivity, or worse down times. Or adding a better interface to a poorly written implementation so you’re not tossing out everything just reducing the surface area for problems.

Good luck! It’s cool that you care, you’ll have fun.