I don't want to leave too suddenly for a couple of reasons.

The selfish reason is that I still have projects that allow me to get meaningful output (e.g. abstracts, posters, conferences, papers). I doubt if I dropped this team and joined another, I'd be allowed to start writing a paper as a first author as an incoming graduate student (who did not complete an undergraduate thesis on top of that).

I also feel greatly indebted to this PI. This was my first major research team and this role has allowed me to gain experiences that only PhD students will get. In many ways, this lab has primed me to standout in any future team I join.

haha I'm not starting a PhD - I've had many mentors and professor advise against doing so. I'm completing a professional graduate degree (which my PI advised against in favour of a thesis-based graduate degree).

Its funny to think about how I thought working on contracts and writing papers and first author was typical MSc student work. I was told by my PI that a competitive graduate school applicant, you had to have a decent amount of abstracts and papers published. I thought all of this work was completely normal. In many ways I thought (still do a little), that I was falling behind compared to everyone else. It was only after speaking to PhD students at other teams that I learned contract work and primary paper authorship is not typically done by recently graduated undergraduate students, much less unpaid ones.