salt-thrower

I'm wondering if recruiters are more likely to pass on job applicants who are currently in contract roles, as opposed to applicants who are currently in full time salaried roles.

I know the job market is more competitive now, but I noticed I'm getting fewer responses on job applications than I used to, even a couple years ago. I worry it's because my current gig is a contract role at a boring company that does not scream "high value tech worker here."

Some people assume contract gigs are easier to get and are worse jobs in general, so people with better options don't take them. And to be honest, that's sometimes true. I'm in my current situation because of how tight the job market got the last couple years and now I'm afraid that I'm stuck.

Is there any merit to this or am I just being paranoid? Are recruiters more likely to see "contract" on a resume and toss it in the bin?

My career has stagnated after almost 9 years and I find myself pigeonholed into working as a full-stack JavaScript CRUD app code monkey.

I’ve been burnt out for a few years now and I despise corporate CRUD development. I find it incredibly tedious and boring, and working in the JavaScript ecosystem is maddening for its own reasons. But these are the only roles I’m hirable for at this point.

At the senior level, people expect expert knowledge of whatever the role entails, so companies seem unlikely to hire for a language stack I haven’t already been using professionally for years.

It seems that escaping upwards into software architecture or management is a common path, but I don’t want to manage and I’m at least a few years out from having the creds for architect.

Has anyone here revitalized or pivoted their career after finding themselves in a similar spot, without leaving tech entirely? If so I’d love to hear what worked for you. Thanks in advance.