Today is officially the first anniversary of me being without a “day job” following my last “normal” day of work on June 30th, 2006. It is truly hard to believe that it has been that long already, but the calendar says that is indeed the case. It has been an interesting year to say the least and I’m excited to see what the next year has in store, especially in regards to my business. While there are positives and negatives to both being employed and self-employed, I am truly digging the freedom from a set schedule and the confines of a “cube”. That is something most people will never have a chance to experience and I am grateful that I have that opportunity.

Who would have thunk it…the consensus is that I have an “interesting” resume. Just about every person that I’ve talked to / interviewed with over the past nine months has made a comment that has included the words “interesting” and “resume” in the same sentence.

What they’re referring to is the fact that I list being the “President & CEO” of Watershed Studio, LLC as my most recent job and want to know why it is that I’m floating my resume around. As an employer interviewing a potential empoyee that would be my very first question for numerous reasons, but I do find the common phrasing a bit, ugh, “interesting”.

In my last unemployment related post I hinted at at least one more “Indiana Unemployment Insurance Benefit” post and here it is…

In the past few months the folks who run the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (IDWD) decided to “help” the unemployed by sending them “Indiana Unemployment Insurance Benefit Debit Cards” which they would then in turn deposit your weekly benefits “checks” to. The main reasoning gave for the change was something about it speeding up the process of receiving your benefits, being more convenient and saving you money on check cashing fees. So, lets take a look at this thinking…

Previously they sent a paper check that I’d take to my local bank and deposit into my account. Simple enough, right?

Now my process is:

1. figure out when they have made a deposit into my account
2. drive to a bank different than my own (apparently my bank isn’t on their list OR they would charge me some sort of additional fees)
   AND
   1. request a balance total via ATM (for some reason a teller can’t OR won’t tell you what the balance is), which charges me $0.50 per inquiry
   2. go to a teller and request the remaining balance in cash
3. drive to my bank and deposit the cash

So that is more convenient how? The only way to make the process more convenient would be a direct deposit into my bank account, which of course they do not offer.

As I’ve stewed over this for a while now, the overall logic behind the change just doesn’t make sense and I seriously wonder if there’s some other reason behind this (I won’t even begin to speculate except to say that it is the government). Anyway, here’s the rundown of my additional thoughts:

• What check cashing fees are people avoiding? If you’re making an unemployment claim, there’s a good chance that you’re not headed to the legalized loan shark to cash your check AND that you have your own bank account which doesn’t charge you to deposit checks into your account. Unemployment is not Welfare, but the mention of check fees makes me wonder if someone seems to think that it is. A quick look at the requirements for collecting unemployment insurance benefits would make that fact evident to anyone. These are people who have lost their jobs by no fault of their own…they didn’t quit and they didn’t wake up one morning and say, “You know, I don’t think that I want to work anymore and I’d like a paid ‘vacation’.”
• Direct deposit…what it the world is so hard about that?
• The debit card can be used to buy groceries, gas and what not and you can get cash back, but…
  • you can only spend what is on the card, which is good, but not easy to manage if you don’t know the balance
  • my important bills require payment via check or e-check, not by credit/debit cards
• There is a website which is supposed to tell you about your account for free, but when I have tried to setup the online access it keeps telling me that it “Cannot find any client that matches the given biographical information.” So I called their toll free number to try to get this sorted out and get an automated system and then sat on hold when I tried to get a real person and finally hung up because my time is worth more than the $0.50 I’ll get charged at the ATM. Plus I only have a few weeks left, so I’m not even going to bother.
• The benefits checks are half of your previous salary (at the very best from what I can tell), so most people are not going to be sitting around all day on their couch watching Oprah and eating Bon Bons. The majority of people are going to be busting their tails to find some way to land a decent job or to create their own.
• Unemployment is by no means a paid vacation, at least not in my case. I’m busier now than I ever was when I had a “day job”…now I am never “off the clock”.

So there’s my unemployment rant. Hopefully that will be the last you hear about it.

For those of you wondering where the weekly unemployment tallies have gone, I have decided to conclude that particular research project of mine. But I do have at least one more unemployment related post in the works.

My 20+ weeks of data gathering have confirmed the following:

1. The job market in Indiana for web development is horrible if you are seeking a full-time position and are not interested in working through a consulting firm. (Outsourcing truly makes sense for most businesses, so that is completely understandable.)
2. The job market in Indiana for web application programming is not so good if your expertise is in open source technologies (such as PHP & MySQL). If you are looking for a job at a Microsoft (ASP, .NET, C#, MSSQL) or Java based shop, there are a few more opportunities, but I still wouldn’t say that the market is good.
3. The job market in Indiana for true marketing related jobs (non sales jobs) appears to be a little better than the computer fields, but without quite a bit of previous experience you’ll be hard pressed to find something.
4. The vast majority of employers do not send letters acknowledging your application nor do they send rejection letters. Of the few that I did get, it was split between formal letters and e-mails. I can only speculate as to why that is.

I’m interested in hearing what other people’s experiences have been, and not just in Indiana. It would be great to know if other people have experienced the same type of thing, or if it is just me.

To answer the burning question, yes, I am still unemployed and am still looking for whatever opportunities are available. But at the same time, I am using every opportunity that I have to focus on Watershed Studio related activities. Business has steadily been picking up and is keeping me quite busy, so that’s an excellent thing…and please continue to send referrals my way, as that accounts for a major sector of my client base.

Also on the horizon…I have learned quite a few things this year in regards to operating a business and plan to begin sharing that with others, along with any new things that I learn, in the very near future. If you’re a business owner yourself, I would love to talk with you, so please get in touch with me.

After nineteen weeks into unemployment here is the tally*:

Resumes Sent and Job Applications: 38
Phone Interviews: 5
Face-to-Face Interviews: 2
Rejection Letters: 3
Job Offers: 0
Unemployment Vouchers Sent: 16
Unemployment Checks Received: 12

* The numbers are correct as far as I can recollect.

This week I received my third rejection “letter” (actually an e-mail) which was complementing and greatly appreciated since soooo many companies refuse to take the time to do such a thing. C’est la Vie and everything does happen for a reason even though it may not be apparent to us at that particular moment.

In Watershed Studio news it was yet another amazing week on the “peak” which netted some new projects and a heap of other quote requests and new contacts. A HUGE thank you to everyone who has sent referrals my way…and please do not stop!

The adventure continues next week…