Professional

Professionals, Professionalism and Professions

According to Webster, the definition of professional is:

We generally consider white-collar professions, jobs and careers as professional. Why, we even consider the President of the US a professional who handles his profession with a great deal of professionalism.

But really what do all of these derivatives mean? It seems obvious but perhaps there are some aspects you haven't considered in your own personal professional life.

Professionals come in all ages, races, sizes even economic backgrounds. A professional is a person who is considered an expert at a particular job, activity or skill via his education, experience or a combination of the two.

Professionals can be educated, title holding, certified individuals like doctors, lawyers, nurses, and even political figures like senators, judges and yes, the President.

Professional also covers people who have a particular talent such as a sport or musicians. With a public position such as they have, certain responsibilities go along with the job. Everyone watches them, even children, and imitates their actions. Not everyone acts with professionalism or we wouldn't have so many super stars splashed all over the media in trouble for various illegal or immoral activities. Look at the problems former President Clinton faced.

Professionals are also people who have a great deal of experience in a particular area such as beauticians, dog trainers and construction workers. Clearly one must have a great deal of experience to master those skills to the point someone will trust you with cutting their hair.

There are also those professionals whose hobbies allow them to call themselves professionals. Some women consider themselves professional shoppers and professional gardeners. Careers can spring out of such hobbies as well. The professional that strikes me as odd is the one who simply decides he is a professional, gets a cell phone, email address and 1000 business cards and he's a professional whatever...

While in the position of being a professional we need to maintain a certain level of professionalism. Professionalism being the manner in which we act. Acting the part is a huge part of our responsibilities. You are trying to convince a potential client that they want to buy from you a particular product or service.

Professional tools are also a big part of maintaining the appearance of professionalism. We have to have the right kinds of tools to do the job correctly. A construction worker can't show up at a construction site with a butter knife and expect to be able to put screws in. In addition, office personnel need to have their tools of the trade- computers, laptops, PDA's, even schedule books and business cards are an essential part of their toolbox.

Some young adults spend an incredible amount of time, money and their parents' money to become a professional. For those that stick with it and succeed, congratulations- what an accomplishment! For those of you who didn't stick with it- you can always order some business cards and hang out your shingle!