Ask HN: Handling a Bad Job/Manager

I am stuck in a bad software engineering job with a team without any senior engineer and an architect who isn't good at communicating/explaining. While we are allowed to make technical decisions, the current code is really bad (2 years worth of code pushed without code reviews) so rectifying it is extremely difficult. I am trying to get a new job but whenever the HM asks why I want to quit & I answer truthfully I get rejected (this happened twice). I am unable to decide whether I should just quit and learn myself with some projects. I have 2 years of experience. What should I do?