The commencement of a career in education can be fraught with challenge for newly qualified teachers as they encounter the reality of their early professional experiences. This chapter draws on the reflections of eleven graduate teachers from a regional university in Victoria, Australia as they first anticipated the start of their career and then navigated the first three weeks of their professional roles. What emerges from the composite narratives of their collective experience is the importance of developing clear expectations of the dynamics of teaching challenges during preservice training, and awareness of protective characteristics and strategies that build capacity to adapt during transition into the profession. Graduate teacher buoyancy, (the capacity to stay afloat in the rocky waters of daily life in teaching and learning contexts), provides the lens for exploring unexpected challenge and resourceful solutions.