This thesis looks at influences on the academic career paths of new lecturers over a period of their first five years of employment in higher education. It is based in one single post-1992 university. An analysis of fifty-three critical incidents articulated by seventeen early career academics reveals an individualised lived experience, showing the influence of teaching, the post-graduate certificate in learning and teaching, peers, research and publishing, and the institution to varying degrees. These five influences are linked to three role identities: the teacher, the educationalist and the academic. It is suggested that for these early career academics, there is little evidence of strong collegial and disciplinary structures and that relations with students and the teaching arena are much more central in defining the academic's everyday existence. It is also suggested that there is no automatic assumption of an academic role identity and that the transition from appointed lecturer to 'academic' is a step change rather than a progression.