ArticlePDF Available

Abstract

Keeping a visible record of your rejected applications can help others to deal with setbacks, says Melanie Stefan.
Although some young scientists embrace
media engagement (see page 365 for a profile
of one of them), many remain nervous. “I’ve
had some young postdocs in politically charged
institutions whisper to me, ‘Hey, I have to wait
until I have tenure, and then you’ll hear from
me’,” says Baron, adding that caution is some-
times warranted. In her book, Escape from
the Ivory Tower: A Guide to Making Your Sci-
ence Matter (Island Press, 2010), she cites the
example of Martin Krkosek, a biologist who as
a graduate student helped to show that sea-lice
infestations linked to farmed salmon in Can-
ada were hurting wild salmon populations.
Between 2005 and 2007, he published in Science
and elsewhere, and often spoke to the media.
Controversy swirled. The salmon aquaculture
industry refuted the findings, suggesting that
the infestations were natural; but in 2008, Brit-
ish Columbia put a moratorium on fish-farm
expansion, owing in part to Krkosek’s work. He
says that his media outreach may have hurt his
cause at some departments where he applied
for positions. At others it was an asset. “Wait-
ing for tenure may be safer for career advance-
ment in some instances,” says Krkosek, now in a
tenure-track position at the University of Otago
in New Zealand. “But opportunities for com-
municating with public and policy audiences
could be lost.
Young scientists should know the cultures of
their institutions, fields and laboratories before
they speak to the media, and find out whether fre-
quent interactions are frowned on, says Dennis
Meredith, author of Explaining Research: How
to Reach Key Audiences to Advance Your Work
(Oxford Univ. Press, 2010). And frequent media
interactions can be a time sink a big downside
for graduate students trying to finish a disserta-
tion, or postdocs in the middle of a big project.
Often, young scientists will run into an adviser
who thinks every minute away from the bench
is wasted”, says Cornelia Dean, long-time sci-
ence writer at The Ne w York Time s an d au tho r of
Am I Making Myself Clear? A Scientists Guide to
Talk ing to the Pub lic (Harvard Univ. Press, 2009).
“I think the culture needs to change,” says Dean.
“You may feel you don’t have media charisma,
and dont have the energy to do it, but you can
at least support the people doing it.
Lewenstein, though, believes that inves-
tigators baulk at student and postdoc media
involvement less than they used to. Four years
ago, when he asked the graduate students and
postdocs taking his science-communication
class how many of them were worried that
their adviser would find out they were there,
about half put their hands up. But when he held
the same workshop this year, no hands were
raised. “You need to recognize that there are
consequences of working with the media,says
Lewenstein. “But in the end its good both for
you as an individual, and for our overall society
if you’re connected with the public.
Gene Russo is the Careers editor at Nature.
A
couple of months ago, I received a let-
ter informing me that my fellowship
application had failed. On the same
day, Brazil’s World Cup squad announced
that football phenomenon Ronaldinho had
not been selected. “Cool,” I thought. “I am
like Ronaldinho.” But that thought offered
only little consolation. No scientist enjoys
such failures, but too often we hide them.
In a way, a fellowship rejection is to be
expected. Most of these fellowships have
success rates of about 15%, meaning that an
applicant might be successful in only one out
of every seven tries. For every hour I’ve spent
working on a successful proposal, I’ve spent
six hours working on ones that will be rejected.
I don’t mind the extra work — after all, if I
abhorred tedious tasks with low chances of
success, I would not be in research.
Even so, this means that for every endorse-
ment, there are about six challenges to my
ability, my determination and my vision. I
find this harder to swallow. Perhaps this is
because I have generally succeeded so far.
I did well at school and later at university,
earned the PhD position of my dreams, and
have published several papers. This is the
story that my CV reveals.
But that is exactly the problem. My CV does
not reflect the bulk of my academic efforts
it does not mention the exams I failed, my
unsuccessful PhD or fellowship applications,
or the papers never accepted for publication.
At conferences, I talk about the one project
that worked, not about the many that failed.
As scientists, we construct a narrative of
success that renders our setbacks invisible
both to ourselves and to others. Often, other
scientists’ careers seem to be a constant,
streamlined series of triumphs. Therefore,
whenever we experience an individual fail-
ure, we feel alone and dejected.
Such is not the case with every profession.
Consider Ronaldinho. A football player can-
not hide his setbacks. Everything is out in the
open — every failure to be selected for a big
competition, every injury, every missed pen-
alty is on display. Maybe this is a good thing. It
shows young aspiring players what it means to
be a football player. It helps them to cope with
their own setbacks.
So here is my suggestion. Compile an alter-
native’ CV of failures. Log every unsuccess-
ful application, refused grant proposal and
rejected paper. Don’t dwell on it for hours, just
keep a running, up-to-date tally. If you dare
— and can afford to — make it public. It will
be six times as long as your normal CV. It will
probably be utterly depressing at first sight. But
it will remind you of the missing truths, some
of the essential parts of what it means to be a
scientist — and it might inspire a colleague to
shake off a rejection and start again.
Melanie Stefan kee ps a P ostdo c Jour nal at
go.nature.com/yd2cjs and is a postdoc in
neurobiology at the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.
ColumN
A CV of failures
Keeping a visible record of your rejected applications can
help others to deal with setbacks, says Melanie Stefan.
Images.Com/CorbIs
18 NOVEMBER 2010 | VOL 468 | NATURE | 467
CAREERS
© 20 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved10
... [4] The concept of a failure resume was popularized by Dr. Melanie I. Stefan, a professor of Physiology at Medical School Berlin, who believes, "keeping a visible record of your rejected applications can help others to deal with setbacks" and her failure resume has led to other scientists sharing their own. [5,6] During the panel, I described how I failed my driver's education test in high school (both written and driving portions!), my challenges in transitioning from computational work to bench work in graduate school without knowing how to pipette, and many other failures in between. ...
Article
Full-text available
Failure is a common experience amongst people, yet it can feel isolating. One graduate student reflects upon her own failures, how she shared them with others, and ponders if she would reverse her failures if given the opportunity. image
Article
Bidding for research funding has increasingly become a main feature of academic work from the doctoral level and beyond. Individually and collectively, the process of grant writing – from idea conceptualisation to administration – involves considerable work, including emotional work in imagining possible futures in which the project is enacted. Competition and failure in grant capture are high, yet there is little discussion about how academics experience grant rejections. In this article we draw on our experiences with grant rejections, as authors with diverse social science backgrounds working with death and bereavement, to discuss how grant rejection can be conceptualised as a form of loss and lead to feelings of grief. We end by considering what forms of recognition and support this may enable.
Article
Sinema tarihini sadece filmlere odaklanan bir yaklaşımla yazma eğilimi son 20 yıldır önemli oranda değişmiştir. Bu değişim bağlamında gözlemlenen yeni yaklaşımlardan biri de çeşitli sebeplerle olmayan/gerçekleşmeyen yani akamete uğrayan şeyleri ele alarak bunları sinema tarihinin yapıcı unsurları arasına dahil etmektir. Bu makalede, karşı-olgusal tarih, başarısızlık çalışmaları ve yapım-dışı çalışmaları kuramsal çerçevelerinden hareket edilerek, Türk sinemasında akamete uğrayan projelerin tarihine odaklanmanın ilk örneklerinden biri verilmektedir. Bu yönüyle elinizdeki makale öncü bir çalışmadır ve bir giriş niteliğidir. Kaynak olarak, Yeşilçam dönemi sinema profesyonellerine ilişkin anı, biyografi ve otobiyografi türlerindeki kitaplarında aktarılan bilgilerden yararlanılmaktadır. Amaç, akamete uğrayan şeylerin tarihsel çalışmaların bir parçası haline getirilmesinin, Türk sinema tarihine ilişkin bilgi ve varsayımları nasıl genişletebileceğini örneklemektir. Makalenin bulguları, sinema profesyonellerinin akamete uğrayan projelerden bahsederken kariyerlerinde geriye dönük bir inşa yaptıklarını ve uluslararası projeler ya da büyük bütçeli yapımlar gibi yokluğu gözlemlenen şeyleri vurguladıklarını ortaya koymaktadır. Ayrıca, bazı sinemacıların akamete uğrayan projelerinde gerçek kariyerlerinden farklı profesyonel patikalar olduğu görülmektedir. Sonuç olarak, Türk sinema tarihinde akamete uğrayan projelere odaklanmanın tarih yazımına yapacağı katkı kuramsal olarak ve örnek vakalarla ortaya konulmuştur.
Article
Positionality has long been at the center of debate on qualitative research and ethnographic field work within and beyond geography. Highly reflective accounts of positionality usually examine the way a researcher’s origins, gender, sexuality, age, religion, race, dis/ability and the intersections of these different aspects influence research encounters, data generated, and narratives produced. In this article, I contribute to this growing debate on positionality by (1) reflecting on the different ways positionality manifests in comparative studies and their implications on the research and knowledge production; and (2) reflecting on how I negotiated my positionality as a researcher originating from the Global South (South Asia), conducting research in two different countries in the South, one my home country, and the other a neighboring country. Both these aspects have received scant attention in the existing works on research methods and comparative studies. The article draws on my doctoral field work conducted in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka using qualitative research methods. This article, in part, is also based on my autobiographical accounts, where I share the experience of my journey from industry to academia.
Article
Two Schmidt Science Fellows describe their academic and career failures as they pursued their PhDs. Suggestions are included for how advisors, departments, and institutions can support students to open up about failure, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds.
Article
Full-text available
Failure is an integral part of life and by extension academia. At the same time, failure is often ignored, with potentially negative consequences both for the science and the scientists involved. This article provides several strategies for learning from and dealing with failure instead of ignoring it. Hopefully, our recommendations are widely applicable, while still taking into account individual differences between academics. These simple rules allow academics to further develop their own strategies for failing successfully in academia.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.