Who is a Professional

" There are two parts to learning craftsmanship: knowledge and work. You must gain
the knowledge of principles, patterns, practices, and heuristics that a craftsman knows, and
you must also grind that knowledge into your fingers, eyes, and gut by working hard and
practicing. "

-- Clean Code, Robert Martin

I was reading Clean Code by Robert Martin & his frank opinion about Craftsmanship / Professionalism struck a note. It takes years of study & practice to become a Professional & Robert Martin would definitely know about it.

Robert has more frank advice about writing clean & good code :-

• Learning to write clean code is hard work. 
• It requires more than just the knowledge of principles and patterns.
• You must sweat over it. You must practice it yourself, and watch yourself fail. 
• You must watch others practice it and fail. 
• You must see them stumble and retrace their steps. 
• You must see them agonize over decisions and see the price they pay for making those decisions the wrong way.

Clean Code by Robert Martin is definitely a must read for all Developers.

I'd like to present another quote, which defines the credo of Professionalism in just two latin words :-

“As recently as 1963, Everett Hughes wrote that the central feature of professionalism was a doctrine of credat emptor—”let the buyer trust”—rather than the commercial maxim of caveat emptor—”let the buyer beware.” 

- The Betrayed Profession

Profession

" Professions produce uniquely expert work, not routine or repetitive work. "

 - White Paper : Profession of Arms

I was reading an interesting White Paper (  White Paper : Profession of Arms ) and I found the definition of a Profession, to be interesting and distinct. A Profession truly produces uniquely expert work, as opposed to labour, that produces routine or repititive work.

The WhitePaper also outlines some of the traits of a Profession :-

• Professionals require years of study and practice before they are capable of expert work.
• Professions earn the trust of their clients through their Ethic – which is their means of motivation and self-control.
• The servant ethic of professions is characterized as cedat emptor, ―let the taker believe in us.
• A self-policing Ethic is an absolute necessity

How different is choosing a Profession from just being employed ? Again, it's a state of mind and as outlined in the WhitePaper :-

Organizations motivate their workers through extrinsic factors such as :-

• Salary
• Benefits
• Promotions.

Professions use inspirational, intrinsic factors like :-

• the life-long pursuit of expert knowledge
• the privilege and honor of service
• camaraderie, and
• the status of membership in an ancient, honorable, and revered occupation.

Software Engineering or Consultancy may not yet be an ancient occupation - it is defenitely an honorable, and revered occupation.

The White Paper : Profession of Arms focusses moslty on the Profession of Arms, but some of the sections are defenitely relevent to any Profession.