So this guy is an employed PhD (at the job he "wanted most") and writes a blog post about how emotionally traumatic receiving rejection notices at normal (if not below normal) rates was. I don't get it.
I think it's an extremely useful blog post. It's a fantastic perspective check for people who might be going through a similar process.
Y'know what? Twenty-nine rejections and one offer is a perfectly normal rate, not just for faculty positions but for many things in life, but it doesn't make each one less painful. When you're stuck in the middle of it and you don't know how the story is going to end, you can lose perspective.
Listen people, here's how HN works. If you disagree with somebody, you reply. You don't downvote just because you disagree, and you definitely don't downvote without a reply just because you disagree. Downvotes are for trolls/rude people. Explain to this person why you disagree, I want to know.
Listen people, here's how HN works. If you disagree with somebody, you reply. You'll note I'm taking the trouble to reply. I checked your join date. It is before several of the many repostings of this statement from pg, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 first posted 1592 days ago: "I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness…
Keep in mind, that was during a much more civil era at HN, and at a time when vote totals were actually displayed. Back then, I downvoted lots of posts I disagreed with because I thought they were worth 10 points instead of 11, but I wouldn't downvote one with 1 point because it clearly wasn't worth 0. The site and culture have changed, and it's silly cargo-culting to just go by old pg quotes that speak to a totally different era of HN.
I found it interesting that most of the letters (with the exception of two) referred to you as Mr. Chang rather than Dr. Chang. I just since you had not technically finished your PhD by that point they were technically accurate. (The letter from Brown seems to be dated June and begins with an apology for delay, so maybe by that point you were actually a Dr.)
Did you find it demeaning that they didn't refer to faculty position applicants as Dr.?
As the author got the 1 job he wanted out of 30+ applications, I feel this point is appropriate. The college I went to had a pub with the policy that a rejection letter (for a job, post graduate position, etc) could be traded for one free beer. It was a brilliant policy for encouraging people to try. From one perspective 30+ letters of rejection to get what you want is depressing. From my perspective that would have…
That pub has a brilliant idea!
Well, if you had traded in all your rejection letters back then, we would not be reading them now 8 years later...
Just curious - I found it interesting that most of the letters (with the exception of two) referred to you as Mr. Chang rather than Dr. Chang. I just since you had not technically finished your PhD by that point they were technically accurate. (The letter from Brown seems to be dated June and begins with an apology for delay, so maybe by that point you were actually a Dr.) Did you find it demeaning that they didn't r…
Not at all. But then again, I'm not huge into titles. I also didn't defend until June, so it was technically correct.
So this guy is an employed PhD (at the job he "wanted most") and writes a blog post about how emotionally traumatic receiving rejection notices at normal (if not below normal) rates was. I don't get it.
One of the reasons I posted the letters was because I'd not seen a big set of rejection letters anywhere before. In fact, I hadn't actually looked at the mass of them together before myself. You are right. I didn't outline the reasons why I posted this very explicitly. I hoped that people would form their own opinions about these things, honestly. One reason, for myself, was that I found myself reflecting on failure,…
There are surely many reasons it was worth sharing. For me it was educational to contemplate the number of applications submitted.
Also, in this case it was fun to the see the letterheads for a large number of well-respected engineering schools all addressed to the same person. Just to be in the position to be rejected by those departments is a significant accomplishment, after all.
Listen people, here's how HN works. If you disagree with somebody, you reply. You'll note I'm taking the trouble to reply. I checked your join date. It is before several of the many repostings of this statement from pg, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 first posted 1592 days ago: "I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness…
Keep in mind, that was during a much more civil era at HN, and at a time when vote totals were actually displayed. Back then, I downvoted lots of posts I disagreed with because I thought they were worth 10 points instead of 11, but I wouldn't downvote one with 1 point because it clearly wasn't worth 0. The site and culture have changed, and it's silly cargo-culting to just go by old pg quotes that speak to a totally…
The letter from Yale is excruciatingly short and (to my eyes, anyway) kind of ghetto looking.
It doesn't force you to read through three introductory paragraphs to find out if the answer is yes or no.
Bah. You already know it's a rejection letter before you open the envelop. If they're actually interested in hiring you you'll get a packet from HR instead of a letter all by itself. It's not much different from applying to a college.