Entering finance: justifying career choices in a stigmatized industry

Working in finance is simultaneously associated with prestige and stigma. This paper, utilizing an economies of worth framework, delves into how industry actors—both field novices and firms—morally legitimize their position in finance. By analyzing company career webpages (N: 120) and conducting in-depth and elicitation interviews with business school students in finance (N: 29), the study examines (1) how finance novices and firms justify their position in finance and (2) to what extent both actors find common ground. By focusing on the different ways disputes, social relations, value repertoires, and methods of argumentation are interpreted, the study identifies three regimes that ascribe moral worth to finance workers: (1) virtuous giver, (2) responsible steward, and (3) visionary leader. The study reveals that, in terms of the virtuous giver regime, there is only a weak alignment between the cultural toolkit of industry novices and the cultural accounts of financial firms, while the other two regimes are as prevalent in both modes of culture.