Hope
Hope–Some ways to have hope in the remote job search.
This week, we talk about hope.
Hope can be a critical (and essential) part of the job search.
Hope can give us the energy to keep going when our job search goes nowhere.
Here are some ideas to have hope in a job search:
(1) Have alternatives
This post is about hope inspired by what I read from a 2013 edition called What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers written by Richard N. Bolles. What Color Is Your Parachute focused on giving career exploration and job-hunting ideas. Richard N. Bolles passed away in 2017. Publishers publish and update the book annually, providing current information on the job-hunting world. According to Google, the 2025 edition of What Color Is Your Parachute has a publication date of around February 18, 2025.
Richard N. Bolles expressed that to keep hope alive, you have alternatives.
He expressed this in the 2013 edition.
“Hope depends upon taking care that we have at least two alternatives, in every situation we find ourselves, and with every task confronting us.” (p. 1)
Ideally, you would have at least 2 career ideas, at least 2 job search techniques, and so on.
Having one option is a recipe for ruin: “To have only one goal, one option, in any situation, is a sure recipe for despair” (p. 2)
So, try to have more than one choice in different things related to your job choice.
How do I pick an alternative career option?
Ideally, you are not just randomly selecting an alternative career option but finding one that is related to the other career options you are trying to find.
Here are some ideas that may help.
- Know your ideal career (or group of ideal careers), and then look at some features of your ideal career and see if you can share some features of your ideal career in your alternative career.
For example, you may be interested in being a professional baseball player but cannot make it to the major leagues of professional baseball because of competition. So, you may decide to become a baseball sports reporter–the baseball sports reporter would share the features of baseball.
The Flower
One way to determine your ideal career is to do the “flower” exercise in the What Color Is Your Parachute book.
What Color Is Your Parachute has many ideas on career exploration; one of the central ideas is doing a “flower”.
A key part of the What Color Is Your Parachute was doing exercises to learn more about your ideal job–you would do exercises that would create a flower. The flower would represent features of what you would like your ideal job to be. Knowing the ideal was essential to increase the odds of working in a work environment that would better serve your natural talents and gifts. The idea of the flower was that a flower may do well in some environments and not well in other environments.
The “flower” exercise is one way to learn about your ideal career; another idea is to talk to a career professional.
(2) Career Professional
Career Professional to help you–you may find hope talking to a career professional. Career Professional can have other names like career coach, career counselor, or other similar title,
A Career Professional may give you hope by giving you guidance in your job search and giving you insight into what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.
(3) Social Groups
You can also find hope in being involved with social groups–sometimes, having social groups around you can help you with the job search stress.
Like to mention one type of social group of interest:
Job Hunting Groups
Job Hunting Groups are social groups where job seekers gather, and they come together to help each other in each person’s job journey. You can gather information that will help you search for a job. You can also reduce the loneliness of the job search. According to a Google search, Job Hunting groups may be called “job search clubs, job search councils, or networking groups.” (from a Google search asking “What are job hunting groups called?”)
Other social groups can include spiritual/religious, athletic, book clubs, and local travel (there may be options in your local area to visit low-cost or free travel places).
Religious–belief in a transition after death
The channel is not really focused on religion, but it gives out an idea of social groups and believing in a religion where death is a transition. This may provide hope when everything else in this life in this world has fallen apart.
(4) Success in something
The job search can be frustrating and filled with rejection.
Another way to have hope is to find something else in your life unrelated to the job search you can succeed with. You can define success in any way you want.
You could have “success” in doing a physical exercise routine, or success in doing a hobby, or success in reading a book. Find something you can have success that you can achieve so you know you are successful in life. So when the job search is a “failure,” you can have something else in life filled with success.
(5) Volunteering
If you are able, you may also have hope through volunteering.
Volunteering can distract you from the job search and give you a way to focus on an activity that can help you feel productive and useful.
(6) Ask for Help
Sometimes, during the job search, you may feel that everything is falling apart; another way to have hope is to ask for help.
You may find a counselor, talk to a friend, or talk to a family member that you can ask to find hope.
(7) Failure
Failure can often result from the job search, but one way to look at failure is as a learning tool. What can I learn from failure to help me get better at what I am doing? You may improve the job search from failure.
Use A Career Professional to help learn from Failure.
(Let me combine this idea with seeing a career professional—sometimes, in a job search, you will not get feedback from the failure of the job search except for obtaining a group of “No’s,” so a career professional may help you learn from failure in the job search.)
These are some ideas to have hope.
Hope can increase your chances of finding a remote job and give you the energy to do so.