As a junior faculty member in her fourth year at a research university, the author has discovered that there are striking differences in the way faculty members have been prepared and socialized to enter the academic workplace. While some receive a quality doctoral experience with exemplary mentoring and socialization, others do not receive the preparation and training they need to succeed in their academic career. Individuals pursue their doctorate for a variety of reasons: (1) for personal attainment; (2) for status and recognition; (3) for a credential to achieve an upward mobility goal; and (4) to become faculty members in the academy. When the author applied to the doctoral program, she wanted to become a professor of higher education and to be part of a lineage of academic women who believed in quality teaching, research, and service. In her mind the honor and responsibility of being accepted into a doctoral program meant that she should persist and finish, and get the most out of her doctoral experience. She clearly wanted a dissertation chair/mentor who would thoughtfully guide her through this experience. In her case she chose to continue working with the advisor who had chaired her master's degree committee. She selected her chair for these reasons: (1) she was the most constructive and rigorous instructor in the classroom and in grading her papers; (2) she was an exemplary teacher; (3) she was a productive scholar; (4) some of their interests were similar; and (5) she believed in, exhibited, and wrote about mentoring, socialization, and the professional development of doctoral students. In this article, the author shares some of the many aspects of her professional and academic socialization and mentoring experiences that she received in her doctoral education, as well as what she has learned as a new faculty member in a research university.