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Junho Kim

Postdoc @UIUC
arkimjh [at] illinois [dot] edu


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CV of Failures

Here is the story: I recently came across a “CV of failures” written by a student in our lab, and it reminded me of similar pages I had seen from other researchers over the years. Come to think of it, rejection has always been a huge part of academic life, including mine. Papers, internships, jobs, grants, and ideas that simply did not work out. Sometimes these rejections are so painful. But if we choose to stay in this career, resilience is something we have to learn, often through the painful repetition. Before my memory gets too selective, I wanted to write down some of these moments for myself.

Every day on LinkedIn and X, we come across announcements of accepted papers, new positions, awards, and other milestones. But naturally, we tend to share the parts of our careers that we want others to see, while the rejections, uncertainty, and failed attempts usually stay out of view.

At a recent conference, I happened to meet another postdoc who told me that, from the outside, it looked like things had been going really well for me. I appreciated that, but it also reminded me how little we really see of what happens behind those announcements. If you happens to find this page while going through a rejection, I hope it reminds you that you are not the only one.

Paper Submission Rejections

Some papers were rejected more than once before eventually finding a home. A few rejections were painful enough that I never even uploaded the paper to arXiv. I only list the ones I still remember clearly.

Unsuccessful Internship / Visiting Scholar Applications

I had many more applications that did not make it past the initial screening stage, so I only list those that reached the interview stage.

Unsuccessful Job Applications

I was very fortunate to receive my current postdoc offer fairly early, so I did not have to spend too much time worrying about job applications at that stage. Still, I had a few rejections along the way, and I am pretty sure there will be many more as I figure out what comes next.