No matter what any recruiter will tell you, you alone are responsible for your career. That means ongoing education and working on a team with proper software development practices.

These practices will help ensure that you spend your time having fun building new things rather than the Very Bad Things which happen when these practices are not in place (trust me on this). No matter whether you are applying for your first gig in IT or you are a master engineer, it is your responsibility to assess a potential employer during the interview process. If these things are not in place already, your employer should be open to doing them.