Carla, a longtime blogging friend, posted this on my Facebook wall yesterday:

I want to pose this question, Dan, to you and some of your readers of your blog. I am pondering the answering to this in my own life because I need some perspective in my own family’s situation, and would like some thoughts from others on this too. “What is unemployment teaching you”–about how you see life, family, Faith etc. It’ll be interesting to hear answers to this question!

When I think about the times I’ve been unemployed (and even underemployed), they have been defining moments for me.

I think I’ve been able to see my life as more than just a job. Unemployment forced me to separate work from my identity. With so many other people unemployed, and with the “wounded animal” demeanor that often accompanies the announcement that one is unemployed, I resolved to not let it be the most interesting thing about me.

It has naturally been a huge strain on my family financially. Unemployment benefits are certainly better than nothing, but they are barely enough to live on. So it forced us to really consider what is important.  As one friend told me, when it’s really boiled down, all we really need is food, shelter, and clothing.  This friend has been seriously reconsidering the direction his life is taking and is making some changes.

Managing the emotional side of job search has been one of the key things I really went after this time around. I resolved at the beginning of 2010 to be an incurably tough-minded optimist. It’s been hard, but that resolve has helped me focus on protecting my mind from negativity and disappointment.

I’ve read so much more during this period because I knew I needed to continue growing and changing, and I look forward to continuing this habit.

Having emotional support, not only from my family, but also from my church community and local job search support groups, has been very important this most recent time around.

Now it’s your turn…

What do you think about what Carla has asked? What is unemployment teaching you?

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Update: Clarifying expecations.

One of the requirements when you file an unemployment claim in Ohio is that you sign up for their Sharing Career Opportunities & Training Information (SCOTI) system (UPDATE: The website now directs to no longer directs anywhere. Check out Ohio Means Jobs). Essentially, you get put into the system with your basic background, and, as participating companies search for individuals, you get contacted by SCOTI to call in to see if there is a suitable match. Receiving unemployment benefits is contingent upon your participation; i.e., if you don’t call, you may not get your unemployment compensation.

I recevied a letter over the weekend from the SCOTI system, and I just finished talking with the representative. The company is looking for an Application Developer with 3-5 years of experience with COBOL, CICS, JCL, and SQL. I don’t have that specific type of experience, and so it was determined that I’m not a suitable match.

One thing that does bother me about that position is the annual salary that the job was offering: $18,335. That sounded really low, and I mentioned that during the phone conversation, but the rep said that’s what it was.

After I hung up, I used the Indeed Salary Search to check whether I was right, and here are the results:

application developer COBOL CICS JCL SQL in Cincinnati, OH $79,000

View Larger Salary Graph

If the rate was really an hourly rate of $18.335/hour ($38,136/year), it would be a lot more reasonable, but still less than the average.

Hopefully the next opportunity will be a more suitable match. What are your thoughts?

P.S. Let me remind you that you can use this handy domain name to get here: http://getthatjobonline.com

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getthatjob get+that+job job+hunt job+search COBOL CICS JCL SQL SCOTI Ohio unemployment indeed+salary+search dan+johnson

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