‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’: Can an early career rejection actually be a good thing longer term?

“Science is 99 percent failure; that’s an optimistic view” Robert Lefkowitz (2012 Nobel Prize Winner).

Rejection is a fact of life as a working academic researcher. It’s how we manage and move on from rejection that can have a positive or negative effect on our careers. Grant applications, manuscript submissions, postdoc and job applications; competition is fierce in academia, especially at early career stages.

One of the things I do is to teach effective…