A degree is not an automatic ticket anymore. I don't think it has anything to do with that. I think this company is like most other companies that hire lots of temps: they have no intention of keeping all of them.

I know someone btw, who does have a degree, but she's temped for over ten years now. I guess you could say this is a cautionary tale about long term temping and contract work. She was only offered a perm job once, and worked perm for a while but the company tanked. She went back to temping. Her agency told her every single assignment was "temp to hire", but she never got hired, despite temping at one of these places for two years. After ten years, its made a horrible mess of her finances because she never knows when she'll be abruptly let go somewhere. And she hasn't had any medical or dental insurance for years. Her teeth are rotting out because she can't afford to get them fixed. I told her even working retail would be better because it would at least be permanent work, and some retail places offer benefits to full time workers. At this point, its now hard for her to get a permanent job because employers always ask why she's been temping for so long. She keeps believing that one day, one of those temp jobs will go perm. The agencies tell her how great and promising that each assignment is. They will tell her about all the benefits she can get at these companies if the job goes perm. The job never goes perm for "budget reasons", "you weren't a good fit" or something else.

My point about this is that temp & contract work can be a huge trap to fall into. Most temp-to-hire jobs do not go perm (and yes of course, some of them do, but most do not). It has nothing to do with you, your education or your work habits. The company could not or did not wish to hire a permanent person. By hiring contractors and temps, they can avoid employee lawsuits and having to pay benefits.