This study examined, through the lens of narrative inquiry, the lived experience of a beginning teacher during her first two years in a neoliberal school system. This narrative inquiry has revealed how an idealistic beginning teacher, enamoured with a constructivist pedagogy and eager to teach and inspire, was engulfed by a neoliberal school culture and taught in a way antithetical to what she had believed. The authors conclude that this story illustrates how neoliberal thinking and practice have impacted the lived experiences of an ordinary beginning teacher and helps to illuminate potential causes of tension and conflict that novice teachers in Singapore are likely to encounter in their induction into the profession and their adoption of alternative pedagogies to teach against the grain of educational neoliberalism that has taken a stranglehold on Singapore’s school system.