Your first job may shape your résumé—but it’s your character that shapes your career. In this piece, Dave Epstein, Assistant Director of The Susilo Institute for Ethics in the Global Economy, explores how the earliest professional experiences quietly define who you become at work. From navigating gray-area decisions and evaluating company culture to choosing mentors and aligning with organizational values, Dave argues that ethical habits form faster—and stick longer—than many realize. His perspective challenges young professionals to look beyond titles and salaries, and instead ask a deeper question: What kind of person am I becoming through my work?
Why are the first few years of a career so important for shaping ethical decision-making?
You have come a long way to get to graduation- so many long hours, continuous studies, socializing and creating lasting friendships, networking, having a lot of fun and hurt, and growing in every possible way. Now you venture out into the working world with opportunities to make your own way with your own values and your own decisions on how to live your life and make an impact on the world. While your first few years of your career may not determine your long-term trajectory in your profession, the values you bring to your personal and professional lives will create the base of who you are and how you will be for a long time to come. It is relatively easy to change jobs (maybe not immediately, or quickly while the job market is tough) as you find what you enjoy and how it affects the world. Who you become as an employee or manager will last because of who gets to know you (your network), and their opinions formed about who you are. Your identity has been shaped by your dedication to schoolwork thus far, with a school identity and a prescriptive set of tasks directed by the courses and professors you’ve chosen. Leaving that protective environment of school, you now create a new persona that is all you: who you are; how you see the world; who your friends and colleagues you choose to spend time with; and what you value. Whether consciously planned or not, you will be defined early in your career. Everything is new and different as you graduate. Like when you went from high school to college, when you left your young identity behind and became a different person, with new friends and new interests academically and socially. Entering a new phase of the workplace gives you a new opportunity to do that again, only with more freedom of choice. School provided both the social and academic structure. Your early career leaves everything open to you, and you will define yourself by those choices and values you bring, not those enforced on you by the prescribed environment. Think about who you want to be. Strive to be that good person in all aspects of your life. If the first workplace conflicts with those values and goals, move on. Two, four or five years to a degree is no longer a thing. Best, of course, is to get that perfect position right off the bat, but that exact right place may not be available to you at first. And even what appears to be perfect may turn out to be different than you had thought. It may take a while to find that harmony, but don’t ever feel stuck. Ponder who that person you want to be is and write it down. Those values will guide you over time and allow you to strive to be that person you imagine.
What kinds of ethical challenges do early-career professionals most commonly face in the workplace?
Most of us, for good reason, focus on what the offer of a new job is – particularly how much will I be paid? It is difficult to fight that urge to fixate on that monetary offer, especially if there is more than one choice. But do spend time thinking deeper – will I be happy there? Does the company represent the values I have? Am I proud to say I work for that CEO that is in the news all the time? There is your first ethical test. Will you make the tradeoff for that job that appears to get you ahead even though you realize you don’t really want to be associated with that company, what it stands for, or the demonstrated character of its executives.
Once in a position, there will be many ethical issues that come up – do you cut corners to get things done? Do you present others’ work as your own (including AI)? Do you say things that are completely honest to your bosses, colleagues, customers, or management that will appease them. Is the product of your work beneficial to society? Even smaller things – like are you putting in a full days’ work, or are the expenses you submit for reimbursement accurate, or are you supplying yourself with items from work for personal use. It is nearly impossible to be a perfect person, so don’t judge yourself too harshly, but always strive to do the right thing. One way to know that you are not following your heart is to find yourself rationalizing why you chose to do something. Most likely if you are wondering if something is the right thing to do, then it likely isn’t. Your gut can be a very good critic – listen and answer to it. Be careful of the words “everyone does that,” “the ends justify the means,” “just this once,” “ask for forgiveness and not permission,” “no one will know,” or “on balance it will be fine.” These are all keys to indicate something may be going wrong. If it is you saying these things, question yourself deeper. Even “do what it takes” can lead to something not right. If your colleague, manager, or report is saying it, question them and push back. This goes to character – yours or others’.
How does workplace culture influence the ethical habits young professionals develop early in their careers?
Corporate culture is probably the most consequential attribute of any company. It determines the work ethic, productivity, camaraderie, economics, job satisfaction, and reputation of the company for employees, customers, suppliers, and investors. You can learn just about everything about a company by studying its culture and even predict its future with surprising accuracy. The basic ethics of the people in an organization become obviously evident by observing behaviors. How do the employees refer to and react to management? How do they treat each other? How do they view their job, goals, and everyday work activities. Is their focus only on money for themselves or the investors? Are the customers treated as faceless pots of money to be taken, or is the company trying to solve their problems so that everyone wins? Same question should be asked of the employees, suppliers, and partners. This culture and environment shape the new employees coming in to be like them. It is difficult and maybe impossible to change this from non-management level employees, and even middle managers need the support of upper management to make positive change, so don’t expect to make big changes. It should be noted that there are many non-ethical companies that are successful if you measure it by profitability and size. That doesn’t mean we, as individuals, feel good about working there. Perhaps we are embarrassed to admit where we work. Although one might be financially comfortable (or even circumstances require it for a time), it likely leaves us with unease most of the time. We are all good at rationalizing, but ultimately, we face justifying our character to ourselves.
What role do managers and mentors play in helping early-career employees build strong ethical judgment?
“You’re as good as the company you keep.” This is so true when you are managed or learn from a mentor you’d like to emulate. When beginning a new job, we are compelled to listen and learn from our manager. They literally hold the purse strings and hold our success and wellness in their hands. If you don’t agree, trust, or believe in the way your manager behaves, then a) you shouldn’t be there and b) you didn’t do enough critical thinking before you took the job. Leave as soon as practical. Your mentors, on the other hand, are your choice and should be one or more people you look up to and believe in. They have experience and lifelong lessons to understand many situations including their own mistakes and help guide you through difficult decisions and directions you will face throughout your career. They may come and go, but try to always keep one or more in your life. There are times especially in your work life when you face a dilemma that seems unresolvable. Dilemmas are those choices we need to make that have good and bad characteristics whichever way we choose. Having someone to understand and empathize with that dilemma is invaluable to your thought process. It is extremely difficult to resolve things on your own – it often takes a third party to enlighten you to not only new ways of looking at things, but to uncover your own personal thoughts and reservations on a path you are about to take. Find and cultivate those mentor relationships.
How can organizations encourage principled decision-making among employees who are just starting their careers?
Organizations are defined by principles, values, and their mission. It is interesting to have long debates on the question of shareholder vs. stakeholder capitalism from an academic and societal perspective, but when it comes down to selecting a company to work for, we all become stakeholder centric – since we ARE the stakeholder in all cases except maybe if you are the majority owner of that entity. So, let’s talk about the foundations of a well-run company. We, as management, plan for long-term success in the market. To do that, we must build a highly productive team that is aligned with our owners and managers and is stable. Alignment is key. If all are aligned, then decisions make sense toward a common goal. Alignment is attained by a well thought out vision, mission, and a set of values, principles, and goals developed, documented and communicated to all in the company – not only in writing but reflected in behaviors and artifacts evident in the company and the public. If ethics and ethical decision making is incorporated in those values and principles, then those who practice the right thing to do management will be rewarded with bigger responsibilities, higher control of directions, promotions, and monetary rewards. Some of the most common excursions from ethical practices are short cuts, misleading others, having ulterior motives, not recognizing the true contributors, favoritism, work ethic and incentives that encourage “a little bit of cheating.” The way you can succeed in a company is to study and truly understand those values, principles and mission and always measure your decisions based on them. As Professor Nina Mazar espouses in her business ethics class, “Don’t ask, when faced with a difficult decision, “What should I do?” but rather “What would I do if I were to make this decision in alignment with those stated values?” The brilliance here is to be able to evaluate it in terms of a third person framework and not how your gut feels right at the moment. It also will align with your coworkers and management who are also striving (or should be!) to practice those principles, and values. Mind you that those can be changed over time but changed only with forethought and purpose and never in reaction to an immediate decision to be made.
How can business schools better prepare students to navigate ethical dilemmas in the workplace?
Business schools historically have been teaching operations, accounting and finance, marketing, human resources, and analytics – all the necessary functions of business with a focus on profitability (highest prices/lowest costs) and efficiency. Questrom is in the company of the few schools that also require at least one business ethics course and offer other socially conscious courses as a major or electives. What is still needed is the integration of ethical business practices in every course, as a fundamental way of doing business. Instead of being treated as a separate course of study, our society should demand that businesses be good citizens, supporting our employees, communities, environment, relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners. There are too many big companies today influencing our government through lobbying and installing handpicked politicians favorable to business that can be detrimental to society as a whole. Driving the government to reduce regulation and taxes on companies, along with the teaching by business schools to relentlessly cut costs and raise prices to what “the market will bear,” is a recipe for government not for the people, but for the corporations and thus, the richest shareholders. Note that approximately 93% of stock market wealth is owned by the top 10% of American households (Fortune 2024). Business schools have a duty to educate the next generation of business leaders to understand that the healthiest society is one in which everyone prospers and that comes only by fairly taking care of all stakeholders. This does not mean socializing corporations but rather learning how to make them succeed by being a positive citizen of the people and communities they serve, the greater society, and the environment.
What advice would you give young professionals who want to build a reputation for ethical leadership early in their careers?
Be the person who will be the role model for the next generation after you. Think about the future and design who you should be now to create that future. Your new hires over the next several decades, including perhaps your own children, will be the ones to create the world you and they live in and will be your legacy, just like you are creating the world as a product of the last generation with all its merits and faults. Perhaps it seems strange to be thinking of the next generation just when you are entering the workforce, but just like missions, visions, and goals for corporations, those are the signposts you need to navigate your own direction. Create that set of personal values and career values now, then measure them against corporate values of the company you consider working for. If you are lucky enough to find them match, you have found the right place. For those of you starting your own business, be sure to develop those values right at the outset, for it will guide all business decisions if you use them correctly. If by joining a company you find yourself having to compromise (which is sometimes necessary), then try to carve out a place within that corporation where you can be true to both, in an acceptable manner. You might nudge the culture in an acceptable direction from within or keep your eye out for a change to a more aligned company. Know that the first job is just that. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to make the perfect decision. You are not stuck forever. So, create that set of values and live them!
