Why I feel it’s important to share rejection stories in academia

Elaine Gregersen (@alawuntoherself ) is an Associate Professor in Law at Northumbria University. In this inspiring story, she talks about the importance of sharing experiences of rejection in academia, and also learning from them.

This story was published on April 3, 2016, on Elaine’s blog, A Law Unto Herself (available here) and has been republished here with her permission.

Rejection sucks. It can affect us like physical pain. But like we would the genesis of an old scar on the forehead, let’s keep sharing our tales of rejection.

Each year, around this time, some of my students greet me with sad faces. They’ve tried their best to get a training contract or a paralegal position, but they haven’t been successful.

In our weekly clinic meetings we often discuss what happened at vacation placements, interviews or assessment days and my students and I share tips for application forms and interview questions. But this doesn’t necessarily provide comfort. My students tell me that they still feel hurt from the rejection. And so, each year, around this time, I tell my students a story. It goes something like this:

When I was a law student I applied to a significant number of law firms for a job. Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Chester, London, Birmingham, Liverpool: you name a city, I applied to work there. I did my homework. I researched the law firms thoroughly. I thought about the questions they might ask and the answers I might give. I knew about their charitable work, their top clients, potential areas for growth. And this was back in the day where you had to queue up in the library to get on a computer. A computer that would then take 5 minutes ‘dialing up.’ Despite many interviews — some good, some really terrible — I didn’t get any offers of employment. Slowly but surely, I pinned the rejection letters to the wall of my student digs. They covered the damp perfectly. I also made a note of the law firms’ feedback on my performance. I distinctly remember where I was standing the day I was told that one half of a particular law firm’s partners wanted me to have the job and the other half didn’t, but in the end they decided it was a no… and, by the way, appearance was quite important in the legal world — had I thought about going to the gym? Ahem.

Two years of rejection. Two years of rejection letters. I had very nearly given up.

Want to know how Professor Gregersen made it through these challenging phases of her academic career? Read her full story here.