+1 on leaving for a different company. I was in the same boat as you, working for a big financial services company and I felt the same frustrations, career stagnation and general corporate BS. I left for a medium-sized company with a start-up feel. Now I have all the things that are important to me (growth, new tech, new challenges...) and I also am compensated better.

Anyway, my opinion on working for big corporate is that it is good when you are just starting up your career (intern, junior developer) and when you are in the advanced stages (director, CTO, etc...). I would avoid it if I can if I want to remain as a software engineer.

I have worked for both small as well as large businesses, I have also freelanced and contracted. My advice is that you can start right now by paying careful attention to what you are working with (technology wise). There are specialists from various disciplines present in big organisations, but segregation of duties can be a ceiling on what you will be allowed to be and do:

1. Join as many developer networks as you can. Contribute as much as possible. Talk to people in your company. Make new connections. If you are certain of the area you would like to specialise in this will be easy. Else, the following points might help:

2. Choose. I know this sounds silly, but with divided attention makes it difficult to grow.

3. Study the technology you chose. You can learn by doing online tutorials or signing up for a course. Be diligent. It does pay off... find like-minded people to link up with to help get you through. We also learn by teaching others - start a blog or contribute to an open source project.

Finally, just enjoy it. The world of technology holds many opportunities for people who are willing to do what it takes. Have courage. Look after your health and emotional well-being. Stand out. Be strong

Having worked in both a small company that focused on small to mid-size marketing sites, and now relatively new in a large corporation with way better pay and an amazing company culture, but not super interesting front end work, these are my thoughts:

There is a lot more money in corporate. I loved the creative freedom I had working as a front end dev in a web shop of 5 people and working on a completely different design for each project, but marketing sites don't pay a whole lot. So, you have to decide what's important. If you desire the bigger paycheck but also want to keep growing and learning, keep the corporate job and make sure you do side projects and work with technologies and the types of projects you enjoy doing. Read a lot to keep up on dev news, do tutorials for things that you want to learn, there are a ton of resources. If you have the kind of energy for a small company or startup, and you don't mind a smaller paycheck, maybe look for a new job that works with the technologies that you are interested in.

if there truly "is really no chance to grow or try out new technologies", then I recommend looking to change jobs. At first, it'll be scary and intimidating, but long term, it'll be worth it.

15 years ago, fresh out of college, I landed a job as an IT guy at a very small software company (~10 employees). After 7 years there, I had worked my way up to IT manager, and I also did some web dev work within the company. By year 5, I was starting to feel stale, and I had always wanted to do web dev full time. There wasn't any where for me to go, as the dev team was filled up, so by year 7, I was ready to start looking for a new job.

I found a new place that allowed me to do web dev full time, and I AM SO GLAD I made the switch. Since you're in the position of having a stable job, you can really take your time to find the right place for you.

Also, as others have pointed out, make sure you inquire within you company for any new opportunities, assuming you like the environment there, and if all else fails, decide whether or not leaving is the right things for you to do.

Leave corporations and work in startups, web agencies. Change job every 1-3 years.

Now you will start learning a lot and won't have corporate BS.

Disclaimer: My opinion and limited experience ahead!

Growing in a career is not easy and always dependent on you. You have to be the active part. The place I work at promotes changing positions every three years in order to experiment, gain new insights and a lot of experience, so every employee can find the right topic and position for life. When that position is found, further growth can be achieved by learning in-depth knowlegde. Be the guy everyone asks when they have trouble. Make a name for yourself. Be very knowledgeable, have a mentor-attitude and be able to lead (projects or a team in general).

As a consequence, what you should do is take a look at vacancies. Switching departments internally usually is very easy and not very comparable to applications from extern, so don't worry too much. Just look for something, which interests and motivates you. Don't talk to your boss/colleagues about it until you have the OK from your new boss (or you would only cause lots of trouble for nothing, especially if your application does not work out). One thing to look out for is: You want to grow! Make sure you get the same money when applying for another position and try to define a loan-goal which is 2 levels above the entry-level. Once you have the job, make sure to go to your boss after 1-1.5 years and get a raise. Make sure to have good arguments (like a difficult upcoming project or a very successful finished project). As soon as you reach your loan-goal, go for another job.

I do not know how old you are and how much experience you have. But as soon as you think, you have the position you really love and want to stay, start making a name for yourself. Be knowledgeable. Be a mentor. Be a leader. Be innovative. Be open-minded. Be active. You should always try to take some time and inform yourself about latest trends. For example new project management strategies. New processes. New patterns and algorithms. New problem-solving strategies (also to solve problems in a team between humans!!!). Come up with new ideas and projects which will position your corporation at the top of the others, save money or just make everything more efficient (maybe by cleaning up old clutter). Show that you are the most important person (but stay humble!). That way, you can demand further loan increases while doing what you love. Things will happen, and you must be the center.

What to do after that, when you have achieved everything I mentioned, really is up to you. I, for my part, am too young to think about these things. Maybe you want to take more time for your family. Maybe you want to start travelling more. Do whatever you want; you already made a name for yourself and no matter what you do, you won't have problems in your job-life any more.

Well, everything I wrote sure sounds a lot easier than it is, but I hope you get the gist of it.

Propose ideas, try finding solutions (software solutions) to improve production e reduce production time, study new languages and coding languages and frameworks during your spare time and try to understand if they can be used in your corporate, smile and dress well. ;)

Well, if your main job doesn't fit with your need you always can find side projects, go to meetups, learning some new language, or framework.

Other question is to talk with your boss/manager and tell him some things to implement, like internal talks, coding kata, technical meetings or something.

It's not posible try to develop side project, contribute to open source in GitHub or talk with other people and try to find some new projects.

Follow different blogs, discuss here in hashnode, and try to learn all of things you want or are interested in.

Do it on the side.

Come up with an idea, work on it during your free time in a stack you want to learn about / would be beneficial to your career. When you get far enough, put it on your resume and see who bites.

I've worked for several large companies from local > 700 employees to national banks (as well as several < 10 employee companies). The side projects on my resume have had as much if not more significance then my corporate work. My current job hired me specifically for my experience with Rackspace hosting, which I only ever used on side projects. Point being, you never know what a company values until you look and apply.

Deciding what to learn might depend on what kind of job / career you want. Big corporate environments tend to standardize on Windows / C# / Java / Oracle / MS SQL, etc... while smaller companies / startups might be more open to trying newer things. Doesn't hurt to learn a few languages, but be careful of spreading yourself to thin. Pick a language or 2, do a few projects that employers can view and see where it goes.