Irene:
Thanks for sharing your observations on how contractors are often treated!
Why have I been working alot as a contractor? A relatively recent article on DICE.com stated that, if an IT person is beyound a "certain age" and comes into the job market, basically, all he\she can expect is a series of contract jobs. I have found this to be true. This one of those "new realities" I guess, especially with companies who are doing alot of overseas outsourcing.
How can a contractor improve him\jher self to get the more "meaty" assignments?
A big part of what is needed is proper focus. One needs to rigorously focus on the essentials in a world full of people who are focused on secondary issues. In my own case, I am seemlying one of about 3 people in the world with significant data flow diagramming experience on larger scale projects. Data flow diagrams uniquely address large-scale integration problems. Properly used, they are a very powerful tool. However, they require a very fervent personality type because they require asking alot of hard questions. So proper focus and passion for what one is doing make an individual stand out and get the higher-level assignments.
Does one need to be a perm in order to get good information (so as to accomplish significant tasks)?
Knowledge of essential procedure (essential requirements) is turf, and often a key to obtaining such knowledge is to be an insider (a perm). In order to be a contractor (i.e., an outsider) and get this essential information, the contractor needs to have alot of management support. Mangement can make side deals with perms in order to persude them to open up and give up some of their "secrets". Sounds kind of paradoxial: On one hand, management avoids developing informal relationships with me, but on the other hand, they go out of their way to enable me to have access to key information. But frankly, I much more value having he second more that the first.
Tony