Interest in the nature and purpose of early career academic experience continues to grow regardless of national boundaries (Nerad et al, 2007; Akerlind, 2005; UK Council for Science and Technology, 2007). Over the past five years, two research teams, one in the UK and one in Canada, have been conducting parallel programs of research – with the intention to examine doctoral student, research staff and new lecturer experiences, largely but not exclusively in the social sciences. This inquiry is situated in a growing international literature examining how becoming academics navigate and can be supported in their journeys (e.g., Barnes & Austin, 2009; Bazeley, 2003; Kamler & Thomson, 2006).

In common with others examining the experience of becoming academics (e.g., Colbeck, 2008), our work is framed within an identity perspective, in particular academic identity-trajectory (McAlpine et al, 2010). This construct emerged mid-way through our first funded research program and incorporates a biographical view of identity. Identity-trajectory focuses on the progression of experiences, intentions and emotions through time which can be constructed as a narrative, connecting events in a meaningful way whether looking forward or back. The underlying premise is that narratives can integrate two aspects of identity construction: the permanence of an individual’s perception of personal identity combined with the sense of personal change rather than stability through time (Elliott, 2005).

Individually distinct past experiences influence present intentions and engagement in academic work as well as future imagined possibilities. Essential is the interweaving of personal values, intentions, emotions and responsibilities in how work is approached and experienced. Yet unexpected constraints (and serendipity) may lead elsewhere. In other words, throughout their lives individuals endeavour to exercise their agency – though within social, personal and physical constraints. As regards engagement with academic work, we perceive three interwoven developing strands: networking (present and past relationships which serve as resources as well as carry responsibilities), intellectual (contributions to the field leading to recognition) and institutional (resources and responsibilities that can further or hinder both networking and intellectual work.

Since this concept first emerged, the two teams have continued to conduct studies. These include but are not limited to: doctoral student experience of the gendered nature of being a physicist; students with emotionally challenging doctoral journeys; influence of biography on varied experiences of common doctoral programs; imagined careers of doctoral students and research staff; intellectual as well as physical re-location of research staff; challenges for an ESL Engineering lecturer to become successful in English grant writing; and integrating the demands of being a newly appointed academic with being a new doctoral supervisor.

This paper draws on these studies, synthesizing the findings, in order to enrich and make more robust our understanding of early academic career experience and the conceptualization of identity-trajectory. We were intrigued to examine the ways in which past intentionality, emotion and experience influenced present experiences and individual’s narratives of the future; underlying this interest was a desire to understand how the personal might intersect with the academic, and the networking, intellectual and institutional strands interweave.

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