Keep Knocking on Doors (Literally): Dr. David J. Hardisty talks Rejection in Academia, Why Pre-Med Wasn't a Fit, Navigating Family Expectations and more
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, or on your favourite podcast platform. You can watch the conversation on YouTube here.
“Rejection happens all the time. Studies don’t work out, most of the papers you submit to journals get rejected. I still get rejected all the time, and it hurts every time, but it hurts a bit less if you know that it’s normal…Now I’m Division Chair - and like i said, I’ve been rejected multiple times from multiple programs. That’s a totally normal experience and path.”
- David J. Hardisty
Dr. David J. Hardisty is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business. He completed his BA at Stanford, his Master of Research at the Université Paris Descartes, and his MA, MPhil and PhD at Columbia University in New York.
Though his degrees are in psychology, Dr. Hardisty's career path has ranged from beginning as a premed student at Stanford to teaching English in Japan, later working as a freelance web developer, before beginning his current research into consumer behaviour.
He teaches courses in consumer decision-making, ethics and sustainability, and he's published over 20 papers in journals including the Journal of Consumer Psychology and the Journal of Marketing. He is an editorial board member for the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, as well as an ad hoc reviewer for over 30 other journals. In 2018, he co-founded the Centre for Decision Insights for Business and Society, and he is the Chair of the University of British Columbia's Marketing and Behavioural Science Division.
Note: this episode was recorded in fall 2021.
SCROLL BELOW FOR VIDEO, ACCOMPANYING IMAGES FROM DR. HARDISTY, AND A NOTE FROM VITA…
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, or on your favourite podcast platform. You can watch the conversation on YouTube here.
Vita’s Personal Learnings
I’ve known Dr. Hardisty (or Dave, as I know him) for years, and I had never heard of all the different career paths he considered and tried out before arriving at consumer behaviour research. I think a lot of people wonder and worry about what might happen if you begin a career and find that it doesn’t feel right - I was constantly thinking about this while in undergrad - so it’s fascinating to hear from someone working in a career they are passionate about, and to hear about the winding path which got them there.
You can hear through the interview that Dave was searching for a way to create impact and make the world a better place, and wasn’t happy to settle in a career which didn’t fulfill that need - I think this will resonate with a lot of young people seeking careers today. Dave’s story is especially motivating because, now in a “settled” career, he hasn’t lost that altruistic sense of wanting to benefit the world and society through his work.
