KLD - Unemployment

When becoming unemployed from IBSI I Immediately defined this plan:

• Intensify the already started application campaign.
• If within 9 months (until march 1995) I do not get a new job , switch over to the preparations for self-employment, but still continue applying for jobs.
  This was not only necessary to continue the income from the unemployment insurance, but also to establish contacts to potential customers.
• Set up a business plan with the aim to start self-employment beginning 1996.

From mid 1994 to end 1995 I wrote about 70 letters of application to get a job as technical author / editor / responsible for documentation. For Switzerland the situation of unemployment was very uncommon and hence officials were not at all able to cope with it properly. Although the age provides positive conditions, such as expertise and experience in various fields, most time it is the main drawback in applying for a job:

• Your last salary usually is higher than that of of younger person, because you occupied some sort of higher ranks, and salary contains a 'social' part to cope with your responsibility for a family.
• In technical areas the experience has not the same value as in social professions. Due to the half decay time of knowledge a 35 year old may well have the same knowledge as a 55 year old.
• The Swiss Pension Fond BVG (Betriebs-Vorsorge Gesetz) uses a rate which grows with your age... Hence the 'security' part of your salary (including that part the company must pay directly) grows from 7% (age ≥ 25), 10% (age ≥ 35), 15% (age ≥ 45) to 18% (age ≥ 55). This progression is unique at least in Europe.

To keep expertise I looked for small jobs during the time of unemployment and got the first in October 1994 from former colleagues. Various projects for companies as diverse as IBM and EUnet provided a nearly continuous stream of work (although not sufficient income). In my opinion this demonstrated the feasibility of free lancing.

A course about "how to start free lance work" led to a detailed budget and further activities. At the end of 1995 I incorporated my company Docu + Design Daube.