When students receive a doctoral degree and find their first job, they will be exposed to the realities of academic life. What will it be like? How should they navigate that particular real world they are thrust into? Most students, even those who taught part time before earning a Ph.D., have only the vaguest concept of what it is like to work in the academic world. The hints provided by the authors of this article are based on what they have seen after long careers in higher education. They do not reflect the way they think academe should be or could be.