Dear Bob ... After years of reading your column and sometimes rolling my eyes, I find myself in a bit of a conundrum myself. I was a contractor for 7 years and got slammed by the recession like most others. I muddled through with a quilt work of short-term contracts but still welcomed the idea of taking a "real job" where I would not be constantly scrambling for the next opportunity. As luck would have it, five Dear Bob …After years of reading your column and sometimes rolling my eyes, I find myself in a bit of a conundrum myself.I was a contractor for 7 years and got slammed by the recession like most others. I muddled through with a quilt work of short-term contracts but still welcomed the idea of taking a “real job” where I would not be constantly scrambling for the next opportunity. As luck would have it, five companies expressed an interest almost simultaneously after years of being a virtual leper. I took what seemed to be a great opportunity – converting an existing commercial application (that BADLY needs an overhaul) to a modern platform and architecture.The pay was okay, the benefits awful and my visions of vacation time this year went out the window but I figured that in return for 6 to 12 months of sweat-shop I’d get some solid credentials to put on the resume. I referred some on-going contracts to others and started here about 6 weeks ago. After a tad over a month, the company cancelled the development contract for “at least a year”, assigned me to bug-fix duty, and laid-off a long-term developer they had on staff. I made a proposal to work half-time on what is clearly a badly needed conversion only to find my boss doesn’t see the point of dot Net at all I find myself muddling through spaghetti code, watching the clock, embarassed when I sneak out after 10 hours at my desk, seeing my marketability degrade as I work with 10 year old technology, and wondering how I let myself get suckered in like this. I mostly feel trapped as I can’t even imagine how to do a job search when I can’t get out of the office during business hours without raising eyebrows. In case I sound as though I am complaining, I guess I am. But if you have any suggestions or comments, I’d sure be interested to hear them.– Call me suckeredDear Sucker … First of all, do whatever it takes to get over the notion that you were suckered. You were hired for an assignment and the company, for whatever reason, pulled the plug on the project you were assigned for. Some companies would have let you go as quickly as they’d hired you. This one decided to keep you on anyway.This happens. “Suckered” sounds like you were deceived by a company and hiring manager with low integrity. That doesn’t fit your description of events.Which doesn’t change your job into one you like, but might improve your outlook a bit – essential to choosing the best alternative for moving forward. If you decide this isn’t the company for you … not position, company … then my best advice is to get on your cell phone during a break to call the companies you turned down. Leave out the suckered part. Let them know the project you were hired for was unexpectedly cancelled leaving you to do a different kind of work you can do but don’t enjoy, and if they still have an opening you’d like to talk with them.If none of them pan out, leave. You’ve succeeded as a contractor in the past, you can succeed as one in the future, and it’s a better platform for conducting a job search than the situation you’re in right now.Or, you might decide the company is fine, just not your current assignment. If so, sticking it out might be a good choice. Under this circumstance, talk with your manager to get an understanding of what kinds of opportunities might open up in the future. You might get a better answer than you expect.– Bob ——– Technology Industry