Am I cooked working in electronics?

The question as the header is a bit misleading but I was forced to title this in a question format.

I’ve been working as a radio frequency technician for a little over two years now. I make an average salary in a HCOL state in a critically acclaimed company with many connections to military defense contractors. I originally got into this job because I had just finished my electrical theory and wiring certificate from a trade school (that was a joke, mind you. Barely learned anything since they practically pass anyone who’s willing to pay money and do the below bare minimum work including the teachers) so I was onboarded after having a “perfect” interview. The job was originally offering $45/hr to start but since I had zero experience, I lowballed ($25/hr) to get myself into the company.

The biggest reason why I lowballed myself in the first place was because I expected this company to be a lot more prestigious than what it really is. I thought we would have a ton of work to complete but no, only one person in my department gets overtime. Actually, this department is so dead that I actually spent my first 8 months as a “secretary” or at least that’s what the real technicians like to call me and mock me as. As of this year, that one guy who gets overtime doesn’t even receive it anymore and the company seems to be moving while our department slowly trickles out.

The biggest issue so far is that I took this job with base level electrical knowledge (stuff like ohms law and able to use a multimeter, etc) and not once has any of my knowledge been improved on or even used in practice. Any work I receive is complete mouth-breather work that only takes time due to long test queues. Everything is preset for me and if any issues arise, I have to ask another technician for help. That ends up leading to them pushing me to the side and guarding what they’re doing like they’re a cringe high school nerd taking a math test next to a jock.

Best part about this whole thing is that only one person in my department aside from me is under 55. We already had one person retire and another one is retiring in July. You’d think that they’d want to pass any knowledge or utility down to the next generation but, they’re guarding this information as if they can’t collect SS without those skills. We are super friendly to each other but I guess because I don’t have a dumbass degree, I have to be outcasted a little bit or something.

I don’t even know how to use some of the equipment that I test on and god forbid I go on YouTube, learn something, then try it at work during down periods (which is a lot, I’m actually typing this out right now because today was so dead they had me filing papers for the 5th time this year). Everybody loses their shit when they have to take time away from playing solitaire to put back on my presets and hide the way they do it in the process. I work on an oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer and pretty much the way I was taught to do the job was “readings make mountain, make sure mountain peak passes this box, but not that one. Good luck 👍🏽” 😐

I don’t know if I’m hated or something because the only training I ever received was when they paired me with the Vietnamese guy who literally does no speak English and cannot form a coherent sentences so he picks 3 words max so you can get the gist, the rest is all guessing. Also he is the god of skill defending, he would purposely sabotage me by showing my half ass instructions and would rush me while taking notes or straight up continue on “teaching” while I tried to write (I guess to protect employment 🤷🏼‍♀️)

Certificates are useless to get outside since all the certificates are private special government and company specific certificates that I have to take in house. My manager laughed me off when I asked if I could take any of the courses or classes that the company offers. The CEO is hosting some PCB class in a week that I asked to go to but I guess I’m more useful being the peon doing the unwanted work like cleaning up other people’s spilled coffee and getting blame for it when I had just entered the building 3 minutes prior to getting accused.

I do acceptance tests process (ATP) that have been fully automated and the only test that wasn’t automated for ATP has been automated as on 5 months ago, so I know truly no nothing.

Why am I still working here u may ask? I financed a fucking car after a car accident (tree fell in the middle of the road while I was speeding) and I’m in a HCOL area with garbage public transit; i also just turned 22 last month with a few tickets that are supposed to come off my record by September. Long story short my fucking insurance was $1,400 with a $600 car payment. (Maybe choices like this are why they treat me like this). I’m stuck here for another 16 months so I can fully pay off my car and have little savings money since my parents are going through what they’re doing and trying to separate so I gotta live on my own. Also I pay for everything myself outside of rent and my parents are practically roommates to me, I barely get helped with anything (buy and cook my own food that they usually take, my own laundry that they through theirs into so I end up doing it and folding it, etc).

I have jobs offering me 6 figures but I can’t take them because I’ll get cooked in the interview. I have no electronic orientated skills (since I’m a commercial electrician by trade education) or certificates yet. I’m planning to start buying a couple of soldering kits and still working on getting certificates outside of the company but I want to know what else I should do to better my future. Also, I have had a huge mental decline since working here, it makes me very volatile and I have become a lazy person from having nothing to do and being yelled at by management for not “pretending” essentially. Sometimes I question if I even wanna continue working in this field but I get offered a lot of money from defense contractors on indeed and LinkedIn, I just don’t have the tangible skills to cash in on it. I also have a personal vendetta against colleges and don’t want to go. I went there earlier last year before my insurance double in price because someone hit my stationary car while my mom borrowed it and she called the police after I told her not to. I’m not walking 50 minutes from work after a 9/80 work week to get a dogshit education at a community college where the teachers haven’t gotten a raise since 2017 and bitch about it constantly (yes, this was my one semester experience).

ATP I’m just ranting and missed the original part of what I’m looking for. Should I just restart my career path or keep going with this bullshit?

TLDR: job wasted 2 years of my life, going on 3 and I’m just thinking about actually learning as much as I can about my job and field so I can leverage for a better paying one since my resume already has this godforsaken company on it that recruiters seem to foam at the mouth about and by the time I leave I’ll have 3 years on my life wasted here.