Early on in grad school, I remember trying to imagine what it would be like to get a paper in a great journal like the American Naturalist, or to get a faculty position, or to get tenure. In my mind, this was accompanied by increasing respect that would lead to greater confidence and self-esteem. However, my experience has been that external validation has decreased as I have progressed in my career. I think that this happens for a couple of reasons.
The first reason that external validation decreases with career stage is that expectations also shift with career stage. As an undergraduate, you are pretty unusual if you are involved in research, or are really engaged with subject material, or get consistently good grades. Faculty often see part of their role in encouraging students (I certainly do!), so oftentimes there is positive feedback coming from people that you admire. As a grad student, publishing, securing funding, and winning awards is unusual, particularly early on, and that can lead to positive feedback from peers and mentors. However, once you become a postdoc, everybody is publishing, so positive feedback for publishing now probably depends on the venue. No longer are small grants impressive, and so on. Once you are faculty, nobody is excited when you publish (of course you publish! That is your job!) or even get grants (Of course you got a grant! They would fire you if you did not, pre-tenure at least). Even winning a research award will only result in some transient praise. Hence, increasing expectations later in your career tend to diminish external validation.
Second, the impact of positive feedback starts to depend a lot on who is giving the feedback. Compliments tend to be most impactful when delivered by someone further along in their career than you, and that number shrinks the longer you are in your career. Additionally, if you think like me, you might be inclined to discount praise from junior colleagues because they might be currying favor, or feel obligated in some way to issue a compliment. Neither of these are probably true most of the time, but they still diminish the impact of positive feedback as you progress through your career.
My experience is that confidence, unlike external validation, has increased as I have progressed through my career. Hence, while external validation has decreased with length of time that I have been doing this job, I have found that I don’t need it and that I am at my best when I ignore external validation. It is nice when it happens, but I don’t want it to be my motivation when it comes to my career, as that leads to perverse incentives and unhealthy behavior. Rather, I do my best to try and let my better impulses like curiosity and wonder guide my actions.
The first reason that external validation decreases with career stage is that expectations also shift with career stage. As an undergraduate, you are pretty unusual if you are involved in research, or are really engaged with subject material, or get consistently good grades. Faculty often see part of their role in encouraging students (I certainly do!), so oftentimes there is positive feedback coming from people that you admire. As a grad student, publishing, securing funding, and winning awards is unusual, particularly early on, and that can lead to positive feedback from peers and mentors. However, once you become a postdoc, everybody is publishing, so positive feedback for publishing now probably depends on the venue. No longer are small grants impressive, and so on. Once you are faculty, nobody is excited when you publish (of course you publish! That is your job!) or even get grants (Of course you got a grant! They would fire you if you did not, pre-tenure at least). Even winning a research award will only result in some transient praise. Hence, increasing expectations later in your career tend to diminish external validation.
Second, the impact of positive feedback starts to depend a lot on who is giving the feedback. Compliments tend to be most impactful when delivered by someone further along in their career than you, and that number shrinks the longer you are in your career. Additionally, if you think like me, you might be inclined to discount praise from junior colleagues because they might be currying favor, or feel obligated in some way to issue a compliment. Neither of these are probably true most of the time, but they still diminish the impact of positive feedback as you progress through your career.
My experience is that confidence, unlike external validation, has increased as I have progressed through my career. Hence, while external validation has decreased with length of time that I have been doing this job, I have found that I don’t need it and that I am at my best when I ignore external validation. It is nice when it happens, but I don’t want it to be my motivation when it comes to my career, as that leads to perverse incentives and unhealthy behavior. Rather, I do my best to try and let my better impulses like curiosity and wonder guide my actions.
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