Dealing with Failure and Impostor Syndrome

We all have to deal with failure during our careers. But how do you handle it? In this podcast regular host Chris Hardy is joined by Charlotte Mykura from Swansea University, and Oz Ismail and Anna Volkmer both from University College London. Being a researcher can be incredibly rewarding. The potential to improve the lives of people with dementia, improve care, find new treatments or better understand the disease and its causes is amazing. However, a thick skin is useful. Dealing with rejection, and trying to not feel like an imposter are important things for us to learn. These are issues that come up time and time again, and not just during early careers, but even for the most senior of people. Failed experiments, rejected papers, unsuccessful grant applications are all part of the job, and event when we are successful we have to avoid feeling like impostors, and enjoy the success and the rewards. Finally, of course, we are using the term ‘failure’, however, we are know that failure is open to interpretation. Because we learn from our failures as much as we do successes.... can our panellists help?