Young scientists often face criticism that can undermine their confidence

Young scientists often face criticism that can undermine their confidence

Key points:

• Resilience is key: Criticism is inevitable, but it shouldn’t deter passion for research

• Perspective shift: Critics may simply lack the ability to articulate their thoughts constructively

• Keep going: Focus on the value of your work and ignore detractors

The bottom line: Resilience and self-belief are essential for young scientists to thrive.

Video transcript

"So when I was a bit younger and less experienced, I was very much concerned about what people would say to me. And I would log into these comments on our blog or whatever social media channels that were resharing the blog posts. And I've written and I see that people are criticizing my work. Something that, this is, like, useless funding programs that are funding useless people coming from abroad to waste time in Europe.

"[ ] I was very sad at that point, and it was very crushing. And this is, I believe, an experience that most young scientists would go through. And you're trying to do something that you are very passionate about, and you think that this is something that is very important and that people might appreciate it. And then it hits you hard that not everyone realizes the importance of doing research and the importance and the value of science.

"But with time, I realized that it's not my problem and that there are people who are going to discourage you. It happens even to people who are working as celebrities, for example, even doing makeup on social media. They also get criticized. It happens to every one of us.

"Therefore, I would just think that these people are actually not only criticizing me, but they're actually my fans because they are following my work, but they don't know how to articulate themselves. And therefore I just decided to ignore them and to keep on doing what I'm doing."

[Transcript generated by AI with human review]