Image provided by Indigo Education Company.
Dear friends,
Thank you for still being there. We have been climbing uphill for months now, and I am so humbled to see all that you have accomplished despite all the heartache and adverse circumstances. I know many of you are working remotely, and even if you are going into the office, interactions with colleagues are much more limited. Without those hallway conversations, people don’t know day-to-day what is happening with you. Most people doing research, whether faculty or trainees, have needed to change their projects and their plans over the last 3 months, for a combination of personal and logistical reasons. No one is following the plans they laid out in February!
I invite you to control the narrative. Instead of being too embarrassed to write to your mentor and tell them that you were not able to pull together your paper for that special issue deadline or submit a conference abstract, frame your work in this time for yourself. Say, “In light of the extra 10 hours per week of clinical work and school closures, I prioritized submitting this paper while the data was fresh instead of that conference abstract.” People are having very different levels of struggle in this time and share the level of detail that is right for you. If you have let a project lie fallow or missed a deadline, address it clearly with the people involved. Bite the bullet!
Share your accomplishments deliberately. Don’t be afraid to send your most recent paper to colleagues inside/ outside your institution. Identify people whom you hope will read/ cite it. Consider saying “usually we would have coffee at our spring conference and catch up about our latest work. Since we won’t see each other for a while, I thought my paper on this topic, which intersects with your recent work on that, would interest you.” This type of email has to be tailored for each person you send it to- if there’s no genuine shared interest, it won’t work. I challenge you to send ONE email like this within the next week.
I can already hear your objection- “People are swamped- I don’t want to add to their email inbox.” First, let me assure you as a mentor that there ARE people who already do share their accomplishments with mentors/ sponsors, and it is working for them. Second, when mentors get radio silence, they draw their own conclusions- sometimes linked to their own implicit biases. Don’t let them make assumptions about what you’re doing or not doing. Tell them!
Please do stay in touch and share any and all news. I am wishing you the best and hoping for the day when I can see you in person!
Warmly,
Urmimala