This article investigates careers of early-career academics in the Russian academic system as it strives to improve its position in the global academic landscape. The typology of "boundaried" and "boundaryless" careers is applied in order to analyze careers in Russia. Two types of academics were identified: "connectors" and "conservationalists." "Connectors" are more likely to embrace research orientation than "conservationalists" and tend to alter their positions in academia based on research reputation in the global professional community, whereas "conservationalists" are oriented at the hierarchies of positions within universities and country-specific academic credentials.