If You Miss Your Goal, Are You a Failure?
If you are working as an independent scholar, in particular, you will experience loss - there is no way around it. There will be times when you get a rejection to your proposal, over and over, without any type of acknowledgement of what might make you a better fit. You may decide you want to work as a full-time scholar by applying to lecturer or professor posts but never get short-listed with no idea as to why.
There will be times when you receive the insulting "there were so many good candidates" email without any understanding of how or why you ranked where you did. And, without the feedback, the likelihood of you receiving more rejections seems more and more likely.
I will pause here to say that this is a truly dysfunctional system. Whether a school or institute has 15 applicants or 150, when applicants are truly spending the time and energy to respond to a request for applicants, candidates deserve more than a form letter which is dismissive and implies your time (the potential employer) has value and theirs does not.
That said, as an applicant, it can be incredibly hard to keep yourself encouraged. There are people who have put in over 100 applications for academic posts and received an invitation to only one interview.
This does not make you a failure. It means you need to request help. It’s okay to request help. We’re here to help.
Dr. CL Nash for the Misogynoir to Mishpat Research Network © 2023
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