Princeton University professor Johannes Haushofer's list of jobs, scholarships and universities that rejected him is spreading around the world.
PRINCETON -- Princeton University professor Johannes Haushofer's resume, which includes degrees from Harvard and Oxford and numerous prestigious jobs and awards, is pretty impressive.
But, it's Haushofer's failures that have made him an internet star.
Haushofer, an assistant professor of psychology and public affairs, posted a "CV of Failures" on April 23 on the Princeton website. The document looks like a curriculum vitae or resume, but it lists everything he was rejected for during his academic career, including jobs he failed to get and universities that rejected his applications.
Princeton getting richer, report says
"Most of what I try fails, but these failures are often invisible, while the successes are visible. I have noticed that this sometimes gives others the impression that most things work out for me," Haushofer wrote. "This CV of Failures is an attempt to balance the record and provide some perspective."
Haushofer's failure resume includes rejections from doctorate programs at Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge and other schools. He was turned down for jobs and fellowships at Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He also lists nine awards and scholarships he failed to get, five papers rejected for publication by various academic journals and numerous foundations that turned down his applications for research funding.
His "CV of Failures," which he linked to from his Twitter account, has gone viral. It has been shared thousands of times on social media and featured in news stories as far away as London and India.
Haushofer, who has been at Princeton since 2014, said a rejection resume wasn't his idea. He was inspired by a 2010 article in Nature by a University of Edinburgh lecturer calling on people to list all the things they failed at before they found success. Many other academics have published similar failure resumes online.
But, Haushofer's failures are being circulated around the world via Twitter, Facebook and other social media. The professor said the irony is not lost on him. He has added a new line to his rejection resume.
"This darn CV of Failures has received way more attention than my entire body of academic work," he wrote, under the heading "Meta-Failures."
Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find NJ.com on Facebook.