<p>Academic careers are increasingly shaped by governance reforms, metric-based evaluation, short-term contracts, and intensified competition for funding. While these transformations are well documented structurally, less attention has been paid to how they are experienced and interpreted by researchers and how such experiences shape the practices through which science is produced and communicated. This paper develops a conceptual framework that complements policy-oriented accounts with a narrative perspective. Drawing on theories of professional identity and liminality, it introduces the ‘hero’s journey’ as an analytical heuristic to understand academic trajectories as non-linear processes marked by uncertainty, failure, and transformation rather than as linear pipelines or ladders. The heuristic reinterprets key stages of academic work—including mentorship, evaluation, precarity, and teaching—and highlights dimensions often marginalised in performance regimes, such as reflection, resilience, and formative learning. This perspective article proposes a conceptual lens for rethinking academic careers in Europe.</p>