As you probably surmise, there's no general answer to your question. It all depends on circumstances that no one here knows better than you.

I'd probably never go the dirty way, but it might depend on what's at stake; nevertheless, I'd start with something positive first, e.g. proposing a new application/service to show I can do more than just maintain the rusty code.

Also, I'd like to dispel the myth of big companies. I know at least one big company where developers are not allowed to refactor a horrible crinkum-crankum of old spaghetti code because the manager responsible for it is the only person who understands its topology and he knows he wouldn't be needed anymore by the company once the structure has changed.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck!

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