It's nice to be able to share good news: I will be a @royalsociety URF with @SussexUni from Nov!

But I know many people will also be struggling with rejection
I've been there too, so I wanted to also share my "CV of failures" to help normalise these experiences...
https://twitter.com/royalsociety/status/1293539992963289088

This success comes after 3 rejections from similar fellowship applications:
1x Royal Society University Research Fellowship
2x STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship
(Each of these previous rejections was really hard to take!)

In the last 2 years I have also applied for 3 other more senior positions and have only gotten to interview once and didn't get any of the jobs:
2x Lectureships at UK universities
1x CERN Staff (LD)
(All also very hard to take!)

Most people are unaware that as my current contract ends in October I was very close to leaving the field...
So close that I've been applying for jobs outside academia.
This is a significant extra load for day-to-day work and mental wellbeing.

I don't have any magic advice when it comes to dealing with rejections. It's just really tough mentally and is physically draining. My (very limited) advice would be:

- 1/3) Try not to take it too personally. I can't claim to have been very good at this... But it's important to remember that everyone gets a rejection at some point!

- 2/3) If you are lucky enough to get good feedback try to take it on board. In my case, my successful attempt came after a significant change of direction for my previously rejected proposal - but I know this is very hard and sometimes not possible.

- 3/3) Talk to people! Getting input from several different levels and directions, both from your niche and the wider field is really important to understand these proposals from a wider (reviewer's) perspective.

And as an endnote: I am well aware that despite the difficulties I've had, as a cis white male I've had it easy in the grand scheme of things...