I absolutely hate and dread being unemployed. I never thought I was the type of person that defined himself through his job; I guess I had the same job for so long that I stopped realizing just how much of my pride and confidence were tied to the fact that I was employed. I’m not gonna say that three months jobless drove me into a depression, but it was close.
So, many of you know that after being unemployed for 3 months, I started working in the civil filing department of the Sacramento Superior Court. It was a temporary contract, so I never felt the comfort of being securely employed. I finished that job about 3 weeks ago, and I was almost in a panic about what I was going to do for work.
Luckily I only had to endure one jobless week. I just got a job as a bike messenger for a company called Attorney’s Diversified Services (ADS).
So here’s what happened. First of all, I got to know a number of bike messengers while working at the courthouse. I worked behind the civil filing window with all the other clerks, and bike messengers bring documents to the courthouse to be filed, so I’d see the same general group of couriers every day. Near the end of my temp contract I started asking everybody I knew if they were hiring, including approaching most of the bike messengers. I figured that my experience at the courthouse may be valuable to legal services companies and/or law firms. The first week after my contract ended I brought my resume to dozens of these types of companies. One week later I got a call from ADS and landed a job
The pay is terrible, BUT, the job is awsome. This is my second week and I already love it. I get to ride my bike all over downtown all day. It’s also very interesting. Legal stuff has always been intersting to me. I get to see how a lot of that world works. I’m in and out of law offices all day, I’ve filed all sorts of documents with the superior court, appellate briefs with the third district appellate court, documents under seal at federal court, served a lawsuit against Arnold Schwarzenegger (yes, I’m doing process service), filed articles of incorporation at the secretary of state, done some interesting little odd jobs for clients, etc.
So that’s what’s going on with me. I’m making about a third what I used to, and I don’t expect I can ever make much more doing this, but for now it’s fun and new and I’M NOT UNEMPLOYED.