The benefits of having conference papers rejected

Conference season

The timelines are filling up again and people taking selfies at airports. Yes, the software testing conference season is in full swing. For the last few years, I was deeply involved in this cycle which meant quite a lot of travelling, speaking and attending. This year, my schedule looks quite different. I am appearing at far fewer conferences.

The value of a rejection

Many of us submit proposals to calls for papers, and we all get rejection emails. For example, there are a couple of specific conferences I try to get into every single year. Well, they reject me every single year.

At first, a rejection just stings, but with time, I realized it serves a highly useful function.

A failed submission forces me to look at my abstract again and fix the flaws in my narrative. Getting told "no", ideally with some usable feedback attached, can actually be a good step towards building resilience. It improves the talks for the next time I submit them somewhere else.

Most importantly, it protects my peace of mind. Preparing and delivering a presentation takes a massive toll on cognitive energy, and a more empty calendar is a guaranteed way to recover.

The unpaid gig

Sometimes the response from a program committee is actually a "yes". But this can also come with a catch.

A couple of conferences wanted to accept my talk this season, but explicitly stated they would not cover travel and accommodation. Usually they try to justify this with wide exposure and building more credibility as a speaker. Sure, this can be helpful, especially in the early stage of your speaking career, but I think that expecting speakers to pay out of their own pocket to provide the core content for an event is a frustrating practice. After all, the talks are what makes a conference.

So I declined these offers. Doing so was surprisingly easy, maybe because I have experience in doing this now.

FOMO and POMO

When you stay behind while everyone else seems to be at an event, fear of missing out (or FOMO) sets in.

Social media makes it look like the entire testing world is having a massive party and you are excluded.

I decided to change my perspective and embrace POMO: the Peace Of Missing Out. It is only a slight shift but when you are able to enjoy the quiet time and say to yourself sincerely "I hope the speakers and attendees there have a lot of fun!", this can make a huge difference mentally.

Conclusion

Conferences remain highly valuable for our community and I really like attending them. I will still attend them and I will still speak - I just enjoy it way too much to stop. But a lighter schedule is a welcome change right now.

We don't always have to be on stage or in the audience to be a relevant part of the testing world.

Sometimes, staying home may be exactly what we need.