The paper sets out to explore the narrative construction of academic careers, focusing especially on the diversity of the storylines through which academics tell about the beginning of their university careers, such as "by coincidence", "inherent calling", “by obligation", “for the degree” and “no better alternatives”. The core question addressed in the paper is thus what kinds of narratives are culturally available for academics to make sense of how they became academics. Combining a narrative analysis with a temporal approach, the paper asks how the past is constructed in the present and how this construction is related to the imagined future (e.g. Adam 1995; Harré 1983; Mead 1932). In addition, the subject positions embedded in the academics' accounts and gender differences in the narratives of career building are scrutinized. The empirical basis of the paper consists of 40 in-depth interviews with Finnish female and male academics, representing different universities, disciplines and categories of staff. References: Adam, B. 1995. Timewatch: The Social Analysis of Time. Cambridge: Polity Press. Harré, R. 1983. Personal Being. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Mead, G.H. 1932. The Philosophy of the Present. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.