"Professional" is a buzzword - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)

Bryce 18 May 06

Um. The opposite of amateur?

Done for money, not necessarily love?

Jesper 18 May 06

“Professional” - and especially “Pro” - seems to me to have become an epithet much like “Plus”. “Improved”, “but with more features” or “better” could usually fit just as well.

Anonymous Coward 18 May 06

“Done for money, not necessarily love?”

Amateur can do it for the money too. And professionals can do it for love. The lines are blurred.

The Colonel 18 May 06

At the risk of being trolled, isn’t this a rather “who cares?” situation.

I find tons of your stuff useful, but this seems rather inane.

For that matter, “buzzword” is a buzzword at this point, no?

I guess I see your point, but meh… who cares?

Jevon 18 May 06

Professional? Someone who is excessively proud of minor accomplishments.

Kendall 18 May 06

I think “professional” implies some sort of quality. Granted, this is not always the case. If I hire someone to fix my bathroom, who was a professional, I would expect a certain level of quality from that individual. On the flipside of that if I hire my buddy Stan, from college, to fix the same bathroom, I’d expect to be neck deep in caulk and water.

So I think that professional still does carry weight. Of course anyone can use the term in reference to themselves regardless of if they are or are not of a high quality.

MasterQ 18 May 06

Anyone who can get something done is a Professional!!

Josh Williams 18 May 06

It has become a buzzword… but I’m not sure how you get around its use. Prosumer is even worse.

The MZA 18 May 06

I think it depends on the context. “Steve Redgrave is a professional athlete” indicates that old 5 scoops’ job is to be an athlete - in that it is what he is paid to do. “The job was completed with total professionalism” is a good thing when discussing, say, a doctor treating a patient.

However, “The senior manager ensured a professional approach was taken” may indicate that a task was completed methodically, by the book and was overseen and verified as such. Not very real.

With this in mind - would people here be pleased, or disturbed, if someone labelled them as professional? Are we doctors caring for our apps, or managers overseeing decision making?

Luis 18 May 06

Techincally…someone who earns their living doing what they do…makes them a professional.

Dave Lemen 18 May 06

I think there are a couple uses for “professional” that we could ban.

One is when “professional” is used in place of “adult,” e.g., “He behaved himself professionally.” Why don’t you just say that he didn’t act like a third grader?

The other is when it’s used in place of “expert,” e.g., “In my professional opinion, …” You might as well go ahead and wear the white lab coat with a badge that says “Respect my authoritay!”

Ben Kittrell 18 May 06

It’s the difference between a prostitute, and someone who just likes to have sex with random people.

iain 18 May 06

Being Professional means knowing when you can hand in substandard work and still get paid.

It means caring more about profit than quality.

Personally, I like keep some sense of craft in my work.

David Ham 18 May 06

The GM tagline of “We are professional grade” makes me grind my teeth.

Chris D 18 May 06

“Professional” as a noun? Who cares.
“Porfessional” as an adjective? Now that’s where it gets interesting.

“Wearing flip flops to work is not very professional.”

Chris D 18 May 06

“Professional” as a noun? Who cares.
“Professional” as an adjective? Now that’s where it gets interesting.

“Wearing flip flops to work is not very professional.”

anonymous professional 18 May 06

It is a buzzword these days.

And people take offense if you don’t consider them a professional.

For instance, I run a resource site for PROFESSIONALS in my field and a good deal of the folks on my site either derive a good portion of their income from this activity. And because of this, we have a specific level of expectations — for instance, folks are ‘asked to leave’ if they are discussing the use of pirated software or asking for assistance with it. A pro can afford it or find a way around not using that particular package.

Folks take offense with us and our use of the word as if they feel demeaned if we don’t consider them a pro. No, if your entire line of work is publishing for your friends and you’ve done all your work out of your bedroom — you are not a professional. Pro vs. Amateur is not a comparison of value — I’d rather watch the olympics than some overpaid sporting athletes (and realize this is not a good example these days) — but a classification.

But it is a word that should have a specific meaning. It helps sort out audiences. And expectations. If someone is a professional, they might still be a nightmare to work with — but they have something that makes others come to them. An amateur might actually be a MUCH better pick and on their way to becoming a professional — but there is no track record.

Olav 18 May 06

“Professional” is a very clear word to me, as it has a clear definition: That you make money from what you’re professional in.

But you’re right that many uses it too loosely..

Luis 18 May 06

The word Profess comes from professional. Does it then mean that a professional just makes claims to being such and everyone just accepts it?

“I profess to being a professional at blah blah”

Ritz 18 May 06

I believe it’s a William Zinser thing, but he said a self-proclaimed professional is someone who bases their decisions on past experiences and successes. But most of the time, past experiences don’t have anything to do with current experiences… I like that.

To me that’s saying the second you consider yourself a professional, you no longer are.

Mike Gowen 18 May 06

Done as a profession.

The only reason why this would imply a higher quality is that you would assume that some one who does something as their profession would have A) Had more practice/experience or B) Does enough of a great job that people are willing to pay him/her for it.

But I agree that these days it doesn’t mean much. You can be a professional at creating crappy web sites. I see it everyday :)

Bruno 18 May 06

To be Professional is to be a skilled practitioner of such profession regardless of money or love.

x amount. 18 May 06

When I’m too lazy to figure out how to add cabinets to my kitchen, I hire a professional.

Alex 18 May 06

Professional is a buzzword, much like �Degree� or �Graduated� as I tell my friends sometimes.

I’ve been told before all Professional means is that you are paid to do it.

That is not to say that there are good professionals and bad professionals.

Seems like it would be the same as putting … .Proficient use of �insert current industry standard here� on your resume.

Mark 18 May 06

PROFESS: practice as a profession, teach, or claim to be knowledgeable about

PROFESSOR: One who professes

PROFESSION: an occupation requiring special education (especially in the liberal arts or sciences)

PROFESSIONAL: A person following a profession, especially a learned profession.

————————

Makes perfect sense to me.

Robert 18 May 06

There’s a quote about being professional I’ve always liked: “Amateurs practice until the get something right. Professionals practice until they don’t get it wrong.”

Whether doing something for love or money, that’s an interesting distinction.

Doug March 18 May 06

Amateur - Bobby Jones
Professional - Tiger Woods

Only difference is the latter has a larger bankroll, better technology and is still alive

Dave Churchville 18 May 06

Well, I don’t know if it’s a “buzzword”, but certainly it’s meaning is now obscured by overuse.

The original meaning relates to “profession”, as in “software development is my profession”. Therefore, I am a software professional.

Nowadays, it’s applied as a noun, verb, adjective, and idiomatic reference to prostitution.

Come to think of it, it’s the last form that may be the most telling. I will do X job for Y dollars.

So if I’m “professional” at work, it means I do what I’m told and collect my paycheck, without the emotion, attitude, or extra effort frequently associated with someone who gives a s—t (or has personality problems).

Arcanum-XIII 18 May 06

A professional is some one who made money with his activities. Simply that.

Amateur can be as good as a pro, better even. But they don’t do money out of it :)

nek4life 18 May 06

To be considered a professional I believe you have to obtain the better part of your income through your profession. I feel as though you could be an expert without being a professional.

jeena 18 May 06

why not call a professional a professional if a spade is a spade?

Josh Owens 18 May 06

Jason,

What does professional mean to you? You guys use the wording in TheDeck. It is in the first paragraph on the page, a design professional.

To me, it means someone who is skilled and trained in some fashion, more than an average person might be. They might end up being self-trained in their profession of choice, but learning and experience go a long way towards quality.

Chris H 18 May 06

Yeah, technically a “professional” is someone who is getting paid to do something - i.e. a “professional” soccer player gets paid to play soccer. An “amateur” soccer player is essentially a “volunteer” soccer player, in that they do not get paid to play.

Now…for the socially distorted definition: A “professional” is someone who does their job with a high level of expertise - i.e. in the movie “The Professional” the main character is a really, really good assassin. An “amateur” is someone who doesn’t do their job so well - i tend to call poor professionals “amateurish” - as in their work has the quality of an amateur.

I think we’ve tended to associate someone’s willingness to pay someone to do something as evidence that they can do this something very well — well enough to be paid for it. This might be true for sports, where only the best make it to the “professional” level.

However I know of tons of individual “professionals” and companies full of “professionals” who somehow convince people to pay them to do or make something and do not do or make this something very well at all. To me that’s one of the downsides of capitalism.

So in essence, professionalism is in the eye of the beholder.

Joe 18 May 06

At the risk of repeating people ( i did not read all of the comments), professional is the way something is done, not necessarily who does it. As a developer, I have seen sites ‘done by professionals’ that are not professionally done. Any site done in Frontpage is not professionally done. So really, it is the quality of a product.

David Smit 18 May 06

Someone that can do something ONCE and do it RIGHT.
PS. That’s me!

beto 18 May 06

Everyone calls themselves a professional these days. To show and demonstrate you really are one is another.

John Kopanas 18 May 06

Professional: not innovative for fear of looking unprofessional

Professional also make me think of someone who is scared. Scared to be themselves for fear of what people are going to think of them.

Professional == complex for no reason

Mark 18 May 06

I think you have to look at the base of the word “profess” and some of the synonyms of the word:
- acknowledge
- affirm
- assert
- avow
- certify
- confess
- confirm

There’s a level of devotion and commitment attached to the word. In my opinion, when one professes something, that are stating in essesence “this is what I am and this is where I want to be”.

To be professional is to state, this is what I have commited my life work to.

An amatuer, while perhaps able to perform on a level as good as or even better than a professional, has not made that level of commitment. This is something they do “on the side” in addition to whatever else they might do professionally.

Deepak 18 May 06

I am in line with Geoff B. To me “being professional” means someone who maintains a high standard in whatever he/she does, usually related to what the person does for a living (but not necessarily). “A professional” is someone who makes a living out of something.

It’s kind of sad that the word has become an epithet. Unfortunately society stereotypes (including pretty much everyone on these forums), which leads to certain words or behaviors getting a negative (or positive) association unfairly.

Anonymous Coward 18 May 06

I’d say that professionalism starts with being able recognize the limitations of your own work… The professional has enough scope of mind to envision what’s feasible and the good sense of only doing what’s required in a most appropriate way.

He’s like a grown up version of an amateur…

Scott 18 May 06

Anyone that gets paid for a task is a professional at that task. The term has been inappropriately extended to reflect quality of work. This extension is innacturate yet sensible because you would expect someone who’s livelyhood depends on a task to be profecient at that task.

Thanks,
Scott

d5 18 May 06

I too like the points raised by Mark B. Methinks the Kathy Sierra quote especially pertinent. I’ve always thought that a mark of the ‘true professional’ is humility more than dignity, though (unsurprisingly) the former will often result in the latter.

street 18 May 06

I agree, ‘Professional’ now joins the ranks of meaningless buzzwords like ‘Platinum’, ‘Extreme’ and ‘Discipline’.

Gary R Boodhoo 18 May 06

Proficiency, quality, standards or “adult” behavior have nothing to do with the label. The difference between the professional and the amateur is simply that the professional faces greater consequences for walking away from a task.

joshua strebel 18 May 06

a quote from our website..

“Using the label “Professional Web Design” does not make us expensive; it makes us accountable.”

That’s how I see it, our clients pay more because we are accountable to them, our name, our reputation, and our business hinges on our “professionalism”. We charge mid- to top tier rates, and our clients expect “professional” service for thier dollars.

It is not a buzzword, it is a decriptor of quality, excellence, and accountability.

oh, and P.S. It kicks ass to rank for “professional web design”. #7, #2, #1, google,yahoo, msn respectivly. Our clients expect nothing less from our company.

Nick B 18 May 06

I believe Josh said it best, “it makes us accountable” is a good way to define it.

That said, it is being overused and diluted these days, but it is good to see that some folks deliver against the old school definition of “professional”.

random8r 18 May 06

Professional is an epithet which implies a connection to a profession. It’s that simple.

If Joe Blogs goes to a professional graphic designer, it means this designer has got either a lot of experience, or a lot of credentials such that they have made this field their speciality, and there is a reasonably high grade of quality associated with the results obtainable.

Professionalism is fairly well synonymous with attentiveness, if you asked me. It’s nothing to do with how accountable one is, unless you extend accountability to mean “paying a lot of attention to something”.

I differ with Scott (above) in that I don’t think being paid for someone necessarily makes you professional at it. If I pay my sister to go and get me some milk from the shop, that does not make her a professional milk delivery service employee.

Andrew Wilson 18 May 06

My apologies for adding to an already spammed comment list; it seems that people should by now be running out of things to say.

I’d only like to add this to the discussion. Someone once told me: “A professional is paid to know something that not everyone can know.” A doctor knows diseases and how they are treated, an engineer knows how to build roads and buildings, etc. If Joe Schmoe doesn’t know something about [health, physics, law], and needs to [get better, fix a road, sue someone], then he hires a professional.

But the real distinguishing feature of a professional, as this man explained it to me, is that they are paid to: (1) understand someone’s problems; (2) present them with alternatives for solving that problem; and (3) explain in lay terms the possible consequences of those alternatives.

When we use “professional” as an adjective to describe actions, we mean “in the way that a professional would do it.” Because the professionals have, traditionally, been people who were required to uphold standards, the word carries a conotation of “behaving according to the standards of professionals”, e.g., doctors treating people (even those they dislike) to the best of the abilities, lawyers being careful to preserve the priviledge of their clients, etc.

But, unfortunately, the word has one final use, the one that brought it buzz-word status: “professional” means “for use by a professional”. A professional scalpal is one used by a doctor who needs the best, not someone doing crafts in their basement who can (cursing and swearing) fall back on his pocket knife at need. And professional software is software that is used by professionals: people who are using the computers for life-, mission-, or business-critical purposes, and can’t afford anything less than the best.

Though it is a typical usage, I dislike the “amatuer-professional” dichotomy, which usually comes back to the issue of getting paid (or being good enough to get paid). This distinction is fine for some purposes (such as divying up athletes, artists, musicians, and others), but not for doctors, lawyers, and software developers.

For me, the issue is trust: I trust (within limits) professionals like doctors and lawyers, because they are required to meet certain standards before they earn their status. I trust certain artists, after I have worked with them and seen their work. I trust them to present me with the best available options to solve my problems—especially those that I cannot solve on my own. These people are, to me, professionals.

I wish I could same the same of the people who make much of the software that I am stuck using.

jf 18 May 06

I’ll go with Danny Webster on this one:

A professional is one engaged in a calling which has specialized knowledge.

jf 18 May 06

Let me add this.. A professional need not be attentive, kind, courteous, respectful , nice or experienced. A professional boxer need only be able to kick your butt to satisfy the definition in his calling.

DottoreNova 19 May 06

Professional means something because we think it does.

if we put a context around it it has different meanings.

But eventually it really doesn’t mean anything. if somebody with a lot of influence decides that professional wil be replaced by 42 then 42 has a meaning.

What I’m trying to say is the following. People are more busy trying to be professional instead of doing things so that others will eventually describe them as being professional. A good example is always einstein, because he was a freak. Do you think einstein was busy with being professional? NOPE! because if he was he wouldn’t have had the time to do al the things he did.

that’s all folks.

Fri�rik M�r J�nsson 19 May 06

Reliability from experience.

Dirk Sabbe 19 May 06

A professional is an amateur who didn’t quit.

Then again: nobody lives long enough to be anything but an amateur.

Steve R. 19 May 06

‘Professional’ describes an attitude - calm, courteous, competent, honest, objective. For example, a CPA is *supposed* to be a professional certification that lets a cutomer know they are dealing with someone who has subject matter expertise and good personal character.

It has, unfortunately, become a buzzword as well - ‘professional dress’ for example, means wearing ‘business attire’, which says nothing about the person doing the wearing, but quite a bit about the person grading the attire.

Am I inferior for not wearing a tie? Or the wrong tie?

Rob Meyer 19 May 06

“Professional” is a dangerous word.

To be “professional” you have to write hundreds of pages of redundant, boring requirements and documentation that no one will read.

To be “professional” you have to make sure your “code review” forms are signed and dated.

To be “professional” you have to have a to-the-minute detailed project plan reaching 6 months into the future.

Anyone who doesn’t have these things will be labeled “unprofessional.” And you can’t fight against a label that doesn’t mean anything.

Thibault B. 19 May 06

For me a professional is somebody who know how to do his job done *right* the first time.

Another way to say could be:
I am a professional because I’m going to do what we agreed to do without the need to re-do it again and again. And we’re going to move on the next task of this project.

Greg Rollins 19 May 06

In my mind the word professional implies that whatever is being done has a tested, documented methodology applied to execution. This could be the order that condiments are applied to a dish being cooked by a professional chef, or the use of XP development for a web application. The methods don’t need to be deeply formal, but they should be well documented and understood.

mattbg 19 May 06

“Professional” isn’t a buzzword, although the whole Web 2.0 trend is trying to compromise its integrity. “Professional” means that you’re trained to the standards of a professional body and that you have at one point in time proven yourself to be competent in accordance with those standards.

There are very few IT professionals because there are very few ways to certify, measure, and hold someone to adherence as an IT professional; most IT workers have not been certified by those bodies, and the bodies are quite immature and not very reliable.

Most of Web 2.0’s content is unprofessional because there are no assurances that the data were collected scientifically according to a methodology or that it’s of any use to anyone. The only people who find it useful are dogmatic believers or those who are willing to suspend disbelief.

So, maybe “professional” is a useless and meaningless term in the IT industry, and the quality of its output would attest to that being true; but, I would not want a non-professional engineer designing my bridges, nor would I want to be operated on by a non-professional surgeon.

And, “professional” in the software product naming context means nothing: a “professional” antivirus scanner; a “professional” registry cleaner; a “professional” Sudoku game; etc…

In IT, there’s been a heavy bastardization of the term “professional”, but today’s IT industry is mostly populated by wannabe professionals who probably couldn’t even finish a basic postsecondary education. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if a great many were high school dropouts; in IT, anyone can apply.

indi 19 May 06

One unfortunate use of the word professional is, “Hey, we’re all professionals here. We’re paid to complete the job even if it means extra hours with no extra pay.” To which my reply is, “I’m not a professional, I’m a mercenary.”

Rick Bateman 19 May 06

It is not a buzzword to those who have earned it. Used as a noun, a “professional” refers to someone with an advanced degree AND who has passed an industry standard examination conducted by his or her peers i.e. Lawyer, Engineer, Dr. There are many other uses as an adjective, verb etc.

BiZwiKi.CN 20 May 06

I agree, it’s not an easy way to be “professional”, both in their job and attitude.

Tom 21 May 06

What the…? I just finished a paper on professionalism online a week ago.

Simon 22 May 06

“Professional” is an excuse or justification in lieu of anything useful to say. A “catch-all”. As in: “Why should we do this?” “Because it’s professional.”

nate 22 May 06

I’m afraid I have to strenuously disagree here.

One of the things that’s always plagued me working in this industry is that any Joe on the street can try to pass themselves off as a web designer/developer, and for me that has really degraded the profession.

There is a world of difference between someone who designs web pages out of their bedroom, or the cheap one-off consultancies that tack on “web design” as a me-too service, and people who actually produce quality work, and stake their ability to put dinner on the table night after night on their ability to produce that quality work on a consistent basis.

Anyone can “design” a web page, but in order to commit to doing that as a full time job, you sort of have to know what you’re doing.

That, to me, is a professional.

Arik 23 May 06

What in this industry really sets a professional apart. Of course you have your usual tags such as quality of work, perception amongst others in your industry and so on. But where’s the paper? ITT Tech is really the only school that tries offer true certification in the industry of web development.

It’d be nice to say, “I have a degree in web technologies” or something of that nature. But even if I did have that choice, it wouldn’t really be taken seriously cause there are so many “professionals’ who have taught themselves and have proved to be very successful and a leader of their caliber.

I guess to me a professional is one who has taken the time to learn the industry and the skills thereof. Someone who has committed to contributing to the industry in more ways than just doing the work. For example, Zeldman is a professional, DHH is a professional, JF is a professional. Essentially anyone who has provided any value to other fellow professionals definitely deserves to be refered to as one.

Fel Jones 23 May 06

A quick skim here surprisingly doesn’t reveal much like what first came to mind for me (tho I may well have missed something): A professional is somebody who is good at his/her craft, does what s/he promises, and communicates honestly and responsibly (i.e., in a timely manner) with his/her clients/customers.

Margherite 23 May 06

“professional” is an epithet used by a subset of many incompetent managers I’ve worked for … as in the idiot actually notices that I’ve done a decent job and he blathers, “Oh, that looks so-o-o-o professional.”

Baglan 26 May 06

Used to indicate work well done but thru overuse became a synonym of done for money.

Ahmad 26 May 06

I’ve heared three meanings for the word professional when used to describe a person (not a product):

1. A person with automaticity in his job. Meaning no body can question or discuss his decisions. Example is a medical doctor. He does not report to upper management and even if he asks other doctors it is either a consultation (like an advice that he can take or reject) or a referral (the patient takes the orders directly from the other doctor) but he never gets orders on what to do, even from other doctors.

2. A person who’s work defines him. He is called and titled with his profession. Again, a medical doctor is a good example.

3. A professional is someone who is only qualified by his peers. Medical doctor again is a good example. You can only become a medical doctor by studying under the supervision of other medical doctors or be certified by a board of medical doctors.

The three examples can also be applied to lawyers, but medical doctor was easier to explain for me because I’m a medical student.

Joel 11 Jul 06

Professional:
That is trained and skilled in the theoretic or scientific parts of a trade or occupation, as distinct from its merely mechanical parts; that raises his trade to the dignity of a learned profession.