Dear Vicky,
We have now reviewed your application/submission for >>INSERT GRANT/JOB/JOURNAL/PROMOTION HERE<< and on this occasion the panel did not feel it fulfilled the criteria we were looking for. This was a highly competitive round, with strong applicants/candidates. Thank you for your interest and we wish you all the best with your future endeavours.
Yours sincerely,
Miscellaneous body of disappointment
Look familiar? If not, you’re either very new to the field, or dare I say – haven’t pushed yourself enough to progress to the next level yet.
As scientists, most of us will be all too familiar with the rejection email above. For every success there’s usually a string of rejections along the way.
Even the most successful scientists amongst us, have suffered the same fate. Three famous biomedically-relevant rejection examples include some of the most influential discoveries of the last century, all of which were rejected when attempting to get published:
- The Krebs cycle (Hans Krebs): In 1937 Nature rejected the TCA cycle paper, for which Hans Krebs later went on to receive the Nobel prize
- The endosymbiotic theory (Lynn Margulis): In the 1960s no less than 15 journals rejected Lynn Margulis’ ground-breaking work!
- The polymerase chain reaction (PCR; Kary Mullis): The first paper describing PCR was rejected by Science, but only 3 years later (in 1989) the journal selected DNA polymerase as ‘molecule of the year!’ Mullis also went on to secure the Nobel prize for his discovery
More recently, a Princeton psychology professor, Johannes Haushofer, decided to published his CV of failures to highlight just how many rejections he’s dealt with throughout his career:
https://www.princeton.edu/~joha/Johannes_Haushofer_CV_of_Failures.pdf
What these examples teach us, is that even the most successful scientists out there have to learn to deal with rejection. It’s just the natural course of things when working in a competitive field, such as life sciences and biomedicine. You just won’t be able to avoid it.
So here are my top five tips for how to deal with rejection and use the experience to your advantage:
- Remember that rejection is normal: If you never put yourself out there you’ll never get rejected, but you also won’t get very far. As highlighted above, all successful scientists have faced rejection at some stage during their career. It’s normal and there’s no reason to think that your career will be any different. In terms of success, the only thing that matters is how you deal with this rejection (see below).
- Deal with disappointment quickly: We’re all human and negative emotions are an inevitable result of the disappointment felt following rejection. Anger, panic, worry, concern, loss, deflation, feeling upset, self-doubt, embarrassment, shock are all things you might feel in response to receiving a rejection email. It’s normal to feel like this.
The key is to deal with these emotions quickly, so they don’t negatively impact on your productivity. Use the principle of one – one moan, one aggressive workout, one duvet day, one binge out, one night drowning your sorrows, one soppy movie etc. Whatever it is that helps you relieve stress, award yourself ONE single reprieve and then that’s it – no more! After this quickly move on…
- Understand that rejection is NOT a reflection of your value: Just because someone doesn’t see the value of you/your work in the context of their own current situation (funding round, job opening etc.), it does not mean that you and/or your work are not valuable. Avoid thinking otherwise.
- Seek feedback: This is arguably the most important step in responding to rejection. You may receive feedback automatically, but if not be sure to ask for it. Feedback will provide you with the understanding you need to move forward.
Once you have the feedback ask yourself, is the criticism valid? Be with honest here. If it’s not, draw a line under it and move on by telling yourself for some reason it wasn’t right, but something better will come along soon J. If it is valid though (and think objectively), listen, learn and be sure to act upon it for future applications.
I know it’s a cliché, but negative criticism helps you grow. You’ll learn how to promote yourself/your work better and understand the gaps that need filling for future applications.
I also advise following up the rejection email with a quick note thanking them for their consideration and that you were grateful for the opportunity. It’s classy and paints you in a really good light – you don’t know when that could help you again in the future!
- Avoid putting all your eggs in one basket: One thing I learnt when seeking research funding, was that it was much easier to deal with rejection when I had multiple applications in the pipeline. If one was to fail, I always had another to be hopeful for in the future. It was good psychologically for bouncing back, but importantly also spread the risk.
There are limitations with this; multiple applications for the same project are often not allowed by funding bodies. However, the focus or question of a research topic can often be tweaked to best suit different funders. Likewise for job openings, continually be on the lookout for suitable positions and get your application into multiple posts where possible.
In Summary
- Rejection is inevitable on the path towards success
- What counts is how you deal with it
- Pick yourself up quickly
- Don’t question your value
- Obtain feedback and use it to improve future applications
- Spread the risk with multiple applications
- And of course, never give up!
How do you deal with rejection in your career? Would love to hear your tips…
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