Six steps to overcoming setbacks and rejection

Coping with setbacks and rejection is extremely hard, yet it is inescapable in academia, where you are constantly being evaluated. These evaluations include tenure and promotion, student feedback, research or sabbatical leave, research or teaching awards, research grants, and conference and journal paper submissions. Each application is an opportunity for success or for failure. If you are faced with rejection, the following strategies might be useful.

1. Make a plan that works for you

Competition is part of academia, but sometimes instead of being a motivator it can be a distractor. For example, you might decide to send a completed article to a high-tier journal even though you know that it has a low probability of being accepted. Getting into top-tier journals is great, but not at the expense of your mental well-being. It is important to recognise and plan where best to send your work, taking all factors into consideration. This can lead to a higher rate of success and more published papers. When setbacks do occur, it is necessary to re-evaluate your plan. Have you been too ambitious? Were the timelines too short? By answering these questions, you can create a more realistic plan that has a higher likelihood of success.

2. Find a mentor

Mentors can provide guidance along your career path, especially if you are a young academic. Choosing the right mentor is important. A mentor should be someone you want to be like; someone who is honest, trustworthy, supportive, patient and available. Remember that you will be sharing your fears and cares with this person and they will be your support when inevitable setbacks or rejections come. Given that your mentor will be a mature academic, they will be able to share their experiences with you. These shared experiences are very useful learning tools and can help you to overcome perceived failures.

• What to do when an academic journal rejects your article
• Resource collection: How to fail well
• Techniques for managing and learning from failure in academia

3. Collaborate as part of a learning community

The two minds are better than one idiom and the phrase “one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight” in Deuteronomy highlight that we can do more when we collaborate. Working with others as part of a learning community provides effective and timely feedback and discussion of ideas that can reduce rejections in the first place. Additionally, colleagues can provide a support structure, encouragement and guidance when the rejections do come. Select collaborators with whom you have shared interests, a good relationship and who you know have your best interests at heart. They will help to boost your confidence and support you as you try again. Learning communities can be run online or in person.

4. Self-evaluate and improve

When you experience rejection, the first thing you need to do is to give yourself a little space to grieve. It is important to determine how short that should be – and, yes, it needs to be short. The second thing to do, when you muster the courage, is to look at the feedback, objectively. For example, if an article submission was rejected, then feedback will also be sent. Carefully review the feedback without emotion to identify possible improvements for the work. Sometimes, minor changes can greatly improve the quality of your work; at other times, a major rework might be required. If you identify a weakness in yourself, or a skill that is lacking, then seek out self-development opportunities. These opportunities could be a course in teaching methodologies or a workshop on research grant writing. Use these opportunities to improve and then try again.

5. Lower the bar and try again

The temptation when your work is rejected is to stop trying. The key, however, is not to give up. A high jumper who does not successfully jump over the bar at a given height in one competition should not begin at that height in the next one. Rather, the athlete should begin at a lower height to gain confidence. In a similar way, in academia, when faced with a rejection or setback, it is important to lower the bar (your expectations) and try again. It might be that you were hoping to be tenured in three years, and now you need to revise the plan to four or opt to submit your article to a less competitive journal.

6. Be patient and persevere

“If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.” As much as we would like strategies to work overnight, sometimes success takes time, patience and perseverance. As you go back to the drawing board to refine your plans, the estimated time to complete activities might inevitably be longer. Finding the right mentor and learning community might also be a lengthy process. Self-evaluation hurts, and self-development might be time-consuming. And finally, it might take a few attempts at achieving a particular goal before you can succeed. So remember, be patient and persevere.

Adopting strategies that help you bounce back from inevitable rejections in academia are important for your well-being and career progression. Leaning on your support networks, reworking plans and, when necessary, lowering the bar will help you reframe setbacks as learning opportunities and increase your chance of succeeding next time.

Paul A. Walcott is a lecturer in computer science at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.

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