At the 2017 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, faculty from different institutions gathered to address this question during a Division C Fireside Chat session entitled “Navigating the Academic Job: Perspective from Deans, Late-Career Faculty, and New faculty at Varying Universities.” Division C, the Learning & Instruction Division, is dedicated to mentoring graduate students and early career scholars; the fireside chat format offers participants an open forum to discuss topics of interest with a particular group of professionals. This session was designed to offer graduate students insight into the journey from recent graduate to new faculty member. A panel of dissertation advisors, new assistant professors, late-career faculty, and deans discussed this seemingly daunting journey and provided diverse perspectives from both the applicant side and the committee side.