Most language teacher educators assume that what they provide to their pre-service ESL teachers will help them transition smoothly into the real school setting, yet we also have evidence that some novice TESOL teachers may be struggling when trying to implement what they have learned in their TESOL teacher education once they begin teaching in their first years. In addition, most early-career TESOL teachers are abandoned once they graduate from their TESOL teacher education programs and left to survive on their own, and/or with the help of school appointed mentors, induction programs or other such assistance. This conceptual paper focuses on these two issues and discusses each as “inconvenient truths”, while also offering ways that both can be rectified by following a novice-service approach to TESOL teacher education.