Can What I Do Be Considered A Profession?

As a digression, I want to muse over this question.

Am I really engaged in a profession?

I ask this question now, because truthfully this question has plagued me over many years. I have wondered why I have not received due respect from the community at large. I have asked myself, do my friends and neighbors really understand what I do for a living? Maybe now is the time to ask. This self-analysis has led me to the two questions above. I have come to the conclusion that the answer to the question is an empathetic ‘no’. If you work in an organization (a business or a non - profit) the organizational activities you do cannot be considered as part of a profession. . Instead as practiced today, they can only be considered as organization or business functions.

In my research as to whether these activities can be considered as professions, I found that most activities to be considered as a profession should have the following characteristics, among others:

1. The public must recognize the occupation as a profession.


2. There needs to be a central regulatory body.


3. There needs to be a code of conduct.

4. There has to be a careful management of knowledge.


5. The activities the profession engages in should satisfy an essential societal need.


6. There must be an official recognition of professional status by the government.


7. There needs to be standards of competence.

And here are two characteristics that are intriguing from a reference I found in www.adprima.com/profession.htm.

1. A profession is based on one or more undergirding disciplines from which it builds its own applied knowledge and skills.


2. Preparation for and induction into the profession is provided through a protracted academic program, usually in a professional school on a college or university campus. This should be accentuated with rigorous testing and examination.
 If one looks at the above criteria, certainly many organizational activities are not professions.

These, so called professions, in practice have:

1) Allowed any and everyone to enter and start calling themselves functional professionals.


2) Focused on activities that have had an administrative focus.


3) Created endless paperwork.


4) Espoused programs and systems peddled by a whole host of consultants who have taken advantage of the lack of professional knowledge of so called "internal specialists".


5) Hired people into these functions who do not have adequate academic preparation.


6) Changed functional labels quite frequently. A true profession does not have to change labels with every passing fad; doctor, lawyer, dentist, nurse, teacher, accountant, carpenter, truck driver and what have you.


7) Led the leaders of these functions to supervising subordinates with a diverse knowledge bases and experiences.


8) Encouraged managers and employees alike to feel that the people in these functions lack personal credibility.


10) Not encouraged the real "brains" to develop their careers in these functions.


11) Not developed uniform terminologies and word meanings.

And I can go on and on. But you get the picture. Right?

But all is not lost. I think there are indeed some real attempts to professionalization of these functions. Many Associations have introduced Certification programs. And now many organizations are only hiring people who have these certifications. There are a lot of rigorous academic programs in many universities both at the graduate and undergraduate levels. One can to that no one should be hired into these professions who has not complied to the professional entry requirement of rigorous academic preparation.

Thus, I highly recommend those who want to enter these professions and those in it already to secure the necessary academic and professional credentials to insure the existence of these professions and also insure future job-security. If this does not happen, this whole function needs to be outsourced to true professionals in the field. This will save most organizations a lot of overhead and direct costs. This is a good mantra in these tough economic times. Most organizations should analyze these functions carefully and determine the real value the internal people are adding and if these folks cannot quantify their value add, then the organization should outsource the activities.

Please remember there is "no gain without pain".