I have also found that “self-employed” is interpreted as “unemployed”. For eight years I was a business partner in an industrial instrument service company that also supplied integration services for process control (refineries, pipelines) and industrial automation. It did not matter that at the time I was working 60 hour weeks and serving multiple clients (ranging from a major refinery to a biomedical company). I was still an unemployed bum in the eyes of women. When I said I was a principal in the company, it was seen as a BS game, even though if they looked up the company name on Manta, they would see the revenues and my being listed as a VP. Yet they would go out with a dope dealer.
RE: even though if they looked up the company name on Manta, they would see the revenues and my being listed as a VP. Yet they would go out with a dope dealer.
Well, you wouldn’t want to date dumb women like these would you? Consider yourself lucky you dodged these bullets. :)