Stay motivated with three tips – Say Yes to You ! (if feeling unappreciated at work as an early career researcher)

1. Continue to apply for funding and career growth opportunities even if discouraged by senior researchers who love pointing out any deficiencies in your CV (while overlooking such deficiencies in their protégés :D).I made that mistake one year, as someone I trusted at a senior level told me not to apply for conferences and grants until I had a publication. I was in the beginning of my PhD, not funded! I needed the funding and the conferences to build my CV. This was absolutely the wrong advice and I should have not followed it, and maybe asked the professor again and again to support me, instead of getting discouraged and not applying. I lost a valuable year of opportunities and regret not attending the conferences, especially at the time before COVID, the department was paying and I found out that even Master’s students went there. The professor was wrong. There was NO requirement to have a publication. The grants were designed for PhD students to get funding for their research in order to carry it out and publish it! And the conferences I was interested in were local conferences especially designed also to support early career students, and I could have just presented the initial results of what I had done so far. I missed an opportunity to connect with astronomers around Finland, and it was hurtful especially because COVID hit soon afterwards and I could not travel to any conference and many conferences were actually cancelled.I would go further and say even if you don’t meet all the requirements and don’t check off all the posted requirements, if you are interested in an opportunity, apply anyways and communicate clearly why you wish to go. For example, once I was able to get in and present online, even though this option was not given. I did not have funding, and had limited travel possibilities due to childcare, but the topic was in my strong interest area. While few conferences did not allow it, as I asked in a few places, one of them agreed to let me present, and it was wonderful. I got good questions from external to my institute experts which enriched my overall approach and understanding about few topics.My NASA mentor once said that you can softly say after a NO something like “Thank you very much for your advice, but I really want to do it. I am motivated to apply and get a grant, because I really wish to contribute to this area, or I wish to work as an astronomer, or …”, and maybe the person will change their mind or be at least willing to let you try and give you that rec letter that is needed, or funding to attend the conference, etc.

Especially if you are a woman and a working mom with children, professors might not be aware of your needs. And it is an important skill to learn to be able to identify what it is that you need, what creative solution might work to do something and propose clearly to your supervisor/manager and to advocate and ask for some accommodation if needed. Commonly it could be, the time to be in balance with family duties, such as not taking a meeting or presentation outside of daycare hours. Another common need could be a place for breastfeeding. Financially, it is always a good idea to ask for extra funds for traveling with family or for childcare, you might be surprised that there is dedicated funding for that! This is less known, so even good friends might tell you the wrong advice. It is always good to ASK FOR YOURSELF! Don’t assume and don’t accept right away any answer. Ask and determine for yourself first, try at least (even if not perfectly), ask (without spending hours to craft an email, just do your best in 5 minutes and send it, usually it will do. Just simply state what you need and why and you can restate your passion/interest/benefit for career) before giving up. Don’t be silent.

One time I asked about an opportunity to study abroad from a friend, but she said that she was applying to it because she got the application from the Dean of the school and it was not for me. Instead of giving up, as I was interested, I emailed the Dean (with who I never spoke before) and asked about this opportunity and if it was possible for me to apply. The Dean replied and gave me the instructions! I applied and turned out to be the winner at the end, which resulted in an unforgettable study abroad experience in China, all expenses (almost) paid!

2. Dive into advice shared by people online, in books, and in other media.

• Explore books.
• Explore blogs of professional astronomers.
• Connect in networking events, conferences, career services, career resources inside your institute and other institutes. Especially big name school often have excellent career resources with tons of online material available actually to anyone. I often check out Harvard and Cambridge career websites, for example.
• Talk to people in academia outside your immediate circle. Talk to your department chair, to professors who are friendly towards you. Talk to professors from your courses or from other disciplines. For example, I connected with a professor who was very successful and she had a large group of happy students and they were doing high impact research in another field, but it was still very helpful to chat and get advice and insight into academia know-how. 
• Some universities have psychologists, study aids, study mentors, etc. Explore your campus resources.
• Connect with your peers.
• Lean into your support network, if you go to church, connect with pastor about your problems, stay positive in your mind.
• Read biographies of successful people who persevered in research despite their own challenges for inspiration.

3. Be You!

My last point is to not be afraid to be You.

You are awesome. 

You don’t need to be like anyone else.

Even if some (important?) people don’t like you, don’t minimize yourself, let it go, and continue to do your thing.

We don’t need to be perfect, everyone has an area (or two or more!) that might need improvement, we are all human.

Celebrate your achievements and celebrate yourself.