"While existing data now provides a fairly detailed picture of the state of the graduate labour market, less is known about the career aspirations of graduates, how and why they make the decisions they do. Based on qualitative interviews with black and minority ethnic business graduates, the article investigates the subjective dimensions of the early formation of careers.This approach opens the way for exploring the influence of 'race'/ethnicity and to do so, the article employs Jenkins' (2004) sociological framework for conceptualizing identity focusing on how identity works in everyday life through three distinct 'orders' — the individual, interaction and institutional. The article argues that career plans and aspirations, while not simply reflective of or determined by 'race'/ethnicity, are formulated in the light of self-concepts of ethnicity that interact dialectically with awareness of a racialized, discriminatory labour market. "

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