Written by: Gideon Burrows

Choosing an ethical career ought to be easier than ever before. Over recent years, issues around ethics have moved out of the university philosophy department and firmly into the mainstream.

Ethical consumerism in the UK is soaring, now worth nearly £30 billion a year. Two thirds of consumers would boycott a company they didn't agree with. According to the Industrial Society, eight out of 10 job seekers would not work for a company whose values they objected to. One third of graduates count contributing to society among their top career goals, says the Universum Graduate Survey.

Ethical standards

Ironically, though, the mountain of information makes choosing an ethical career more difficult. Take the handful of organisations that measure companies' social and environmental records. Each has drawn up sound ways to mark organisations against ethical standards, yet their results rarely agree.

The Co-operative Bank, for example, draws up its ethical policy according to consultation with its customers. The Ethical Consumer Research Association measures companies against its own 15 "corporate responsibility categories". The Ethical Investment Research Service uses a team of experts to monitor reports, and sends out questionnaires to firms, before passing judgement. The ethical stock market, FTSE4Good, has a complex set of principles that evolve over time, and under which bigger companies have to achieve higher ethical standards.

CSR reports

It doesn't help that traditional assumptions, about big business being bad, and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) always being good, no longer quite ring true. The growth of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has shown in some, but by no means all, cases that large corporations can take ethical and environmental concerns seriously.

Meanwhile charities come under fire for unethical investments, spending too much on branding and fundraising, and using poorly paid "chuggers" to recruit new supporters on the high street.

Even aid agencies are not immune to criticism. Former head of global advocacy at Christian Aid, Mark Curtis, has accused agencies of pursuing income growth and profile over influence. "Talking politely to the Government doesn't often work,” he said. “I think most supporters of those NGOs would be horrified by the degree to which they are co-opted by the powerful.”

Be clear about your goals

In such a climate, the most ethical careers are not those approved by some arbitrary external referee, but those chosen by us after fully informing ourselves about the employer and being very clear from the start what we want to achieve in our jobs.

With the mass of ethics related material in the public domain, about companies, charities and NGOs, published by campaign groups, CSR studies, ethical comparison websites and the fearless work of really committed and independent organisations like Corporatewatch and Schnews, there is no excuse for ignorance.

It is more ethical to work in the CSR department of a multinational, after spending weeks reading up on it and weighing up the options, than blindly pursuing a job in children's charity because the work gives you a nice warm feeling inside.

Ask questions

The most ethical careers are the ones where you use the interview to challenge the organisation you're considering working for: what chance is there for individuals to create change from the inside? How can you prove your environmental impact is as low as you say it is? What are your ethical investment policies? If you're too worried to ask these questions at the interview, then wait until the job offer before you grill them. But do grill them.

There's a tired and worn out response to the boycott of unethical organisations: that it's better to try and change things from the inside, than merely to shout from the sidelines. It's time for a new approach to ethical careers.

Careers that'll negotiate a better deal 

Ethical job seekers are intelligent, self-motivated, opinionated, informed. In short, exactly the kind of employees that every company, every organisation wants. That provides a great opportunity for us to change things. If companies want the best staff, they need to be told what they have to put in place in order to have us as employees.

This approach won't change things by itself, but it is a complementary tactic in a growing movement to make the world a better place. The most ethical careers are those where we use our own labour and our own expertise to negotiate a better deal, not for ourselves, but for communities these organisations affect, for our environment and for the wider world.

What do you think? Email your opinions, comments and suggestions to trina@ngomedia.org.uk

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