The article is devoted to the definition of specific characteristics of professions in which the need for the formation of professional ethics exists. The problems of "self-identification" of applied and professional ethics, as well as the issues of their correlation, are one of the most significant for the contemporary situation of ethical knowledge. As a result of the research, possible ways of relationships between applied and professional ethics were identified: the existence of relatively independent professional ethics in relation to applied ethics; the existence of professional ethics, which are the basis of applied ethics; applied ethics which exists without regard to professional ethics; professional ethics as having no strict correspondence in applied ethics. The article notes that currently there is an increase in the number of theoretical and empirical research in the field of professional ethics, and also professional ethics acquires the character of normatively formalized practical requirements for professional activity. In the course of the study, ethical requirements are analyzed, which are formulated in some professional standards in the Russian Federation, as well as the provisions of a number of codes of professional ethics. As a result, a number of features were revealed which are characteristics of "ethical-oriented" professions: the orientation of professional activity towards social values, the existence of internal moral attitudes; the pres-ence of external moral expectations on the part of society; the existence of a moral conflict of decision-making in the conduct of professional activity, personalism of professional activity; the emergence of specific hierarchical relationships within the profession; the existence of autonomous adoption procedures in the profession; the presence within the professions of organizational structures that contribute to the maintenance of professional ethics. The article notes that these characteristics are not only descriptive, but also normative characteristics of "ethical-oriented" professions.