I passed out intelligent, but process killed me!!!

This is the funniest title I could think of for my near-about three years in IT industry. If you ask me how I felt when I left previous project. Really speaking I was relieved. I scared night shifts(I am BE first class with out any night out ;) ). However, when I look at previous project from my current project, I understand that my previous was much more complex project and we were not technologically competent.
I am strong in logic. Hence I think I am good in programming. However, point is how many times I applied logic or I did programming in my previous project. It was not lack of opportunity, it was lack of time. Out of 9 hours we used to work, much of the time was spent in following SLAs and processes. So when one of my friend from Mumbai says that if you dont work hard right now when will you work hard? I say that I am ready to work hard. However, work should interest me. If I am not competent enough I must be given opportunity towards it. If I am judged through how many extra curricular activities I am doing rather than how I am working then it will be a wrong decision. A wrong decision for me and for the organization too.
I am not against process. I think process streamlines your operations. However, when a person develops from one year to another and his brain is not given enough challenging tasks he will get frustrated. As an intellectual person you are not getting chance to prove yourself then chances are you will move out. Again opportunities are also very important in life. Just imagine you get married and have one kid and you are offered an onsite opportunity. Certainly you may not want to disturb their lifes. Lack of opportunities at correct timings can be very well reason of frustration and boredom.
One thing is for sure, I met friends of life at my previous projects. It was very well mixture of simple, good, intellectual, smart and very smart people. I learnt a lot of project/management tricks from their. It was really nice to be a part of it.