Princeton Professor's Resume Of 'Failures' Goes Viral

Geez, if you get a job at Princeton University, you should be pretty happy, right?

No so, apparently, for everybody. Or that's what you're led to believe when you look at online CV of Johannes Haushofer, an assistant professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton.

He entitled it "CV OF FAILURES," and it's gone viral.

"Most of what I try fails, but these failures are often invisible, while the successes are visible," he wrote at the top of the CV. "I have noticed that this sometimes gives others the impression that most things work out for me."

The CV of Failures has been shared by thousands on Facebook, Twitter and other social media, prompting the professor to respond on his own account.

"Dear everyone writing your own CV of failures: just to point out I'm not aware of scientific evidence saying it does anything good for you," he wrote on Twitter.

Haushofer wrote that this CV of Failures "is an attempt to balance the record and provide some perspective."

"So if it’s shorter than yours, it’s likely because you have better memory, or because you’re better at trying things than me," he wrote.

He also added this diddy at the end:

• 2016 This darn CV of Failures has received way more attention than my entire body of academic work

So here are his failures:

Degree programs I did not get into

• 2008 PhD Program in Economics, Stockholm School of Economics
• 2003 Graduate Course in Medicine, Cambridge University Graduate Course in Medicine, UCL PhD Program in Psychology, Harvard University PhD Program in Neuroscience and Psychology, Stanford University
• 1999 BA in International Relations, London School of Economics

Academic positions and fellowships I did not get

• 2014 Harvard Kennedy School Assistant Professorship UC Berkeley Agricultural and Resource Economics Assistant Professorship MIT Brain & Cognitive Sciences Assistant Professorship This list is restricted to institutions where I had campus visits; the list of places where I had first-round interviews but wasn’t invited for a campus visit, and where I wasn’t invited to interview in the first place, is much longer and I will write it up when I get a chance. The list also shrouds the fact that I didn’t apply to most of the top economics departments (Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Chicago, Berkeley, LSE) because one of my advisors felt they could not write a strong letter for them.

Awards and scholarships I did not get

• 2011 Swiss Network for International Studies PhD Award 2010 Society of Fellows, Harvard University Society in Science Scholarship University of Zurich Research Scholarship 1
• 2009 Human Frontiers Fellowship
• 2007 Mind-Brain-Behavior Award (Harvard University)
• 2006 Mind-Brain-Behavior Award (Harvard University)
• 2003 Fulbright Scholarship Haniel Scholarship (German National Merit Foundation)

Paper rejections from academic journals

• 2016 QJE, Experimental Economics 2015 AER x 2 2013 PNAS, Experimental Economics, Science, Neuron
• 2009 AER 2008 Science, Neuron, Nature Neuroscience, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Vision Research funding I did not get
• 2016 MQ Mental Health Research Grant 2015 Russell Sage Research Grant (two separate ones)
• 2013 National Science Foundation Research Grant
• 2010 University of Zurich Research Grant Swiss National Science Foundation Research Grant
• 2009 Financial Innovation Grant International Labor Organization Research Grant 3ie

Research Grant Meta-Failures

• 2016 This darn CV of Failures has received way more attention than my entire body of academic work

Click here to see the whole list.