Great article Muhammad. Very important topic. "I never got to built a specialized skillset nor did any real projects that I could feel proud of". I completely understand what you feel. I was in the same shoes in the last 5-8 years. I worked with outdated technologies on an outdated project without any pleasure or feel of achievement. I had 0 feedback about my work. However I was not underpaid but there were serious delays with salaries regularly which kept me under a constant stress as I had to take care of my wife and son.
In addition to burnout, I seriously felt I was the worst programmer in the world despite doing programming since my childhood. I not just runt out but I was the perfect example of the impostor syndrome. It caused me years of depression.
Whenever I left they owed me 3 months of salary, which I got finally a few weeks after my leaving.
This is the last week of my probation period at my new company. We will continue working together as I really like basically everything about the company. The team, the product, the tech stack and also the opportunities for improvements. We have weekly one on one sessions with my team manager where we give feedback to each other, and last but not least I can work together with my friend which is invaluable.
Thanks for being brave enough to share your story on this very sensitive topic. I also wrote a very long story of my own, which is quite similar to yours, but up till now I was not brave enough to post it. 😊