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Someone asked me an odd question the other day.
'Is software development, a profession?'
I thought about it and said 'no'.
It's probably a very outdated view, but I reckon that a number of criteria define a 'profession' as opposed to a 'job'
You 'practise' it ...*
. You have practising doctors, lawyers and teachers; you don't usually hear people say 'I'm a practising programmer'.
To practise a profession, you are required by law, to have a national/internationally recognised qualification that says you can do it. Anyone who wants to be a programmer, can be a programmer.
At the height of the dot-com madness when every man and his dog wanted to be a programmer, I interviewed some folk with some very interesting CVs. One chap had worked for ten years as roofer, before deciding that he was an 'experienced internet programming consultant.'*
A friend interviewed a night club doorman who just happened to be an 'web architect'. It turned out that he was also did community work for the police, but had written on his CV that he was 'a marital arts expert who in his spare time, helped the police with their enquiries.'
You are regulated by national/international board of some kind, who have the power to stop you practising if you screw up. In IT, if you cause thousands of pounds of data loss, you get another job.
I've also noticed that 'professional' careers do not seem to be affected by employment trends. I've never heard of mass lawyer layoffs.
What do you lot think?
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'Is software development, a profession?'
I thought about it and said 'no'.
It's probably a very outdated view, but I reckon that a number of criteria define a 'profession' as opposed to a 'job'
You 'practise' it ...*
. You have practising doctors, lawyers and teachers; you don't usually hear people say 'I'm a practising programmer'.To practise a profession, you are required by law, to have a national/internationally recognised qualification that says you can do it. Anyone who wants to be a programmer, can be a programmer.
At the height of the dot-com madness when every man and his dog wanted to be a programmer, I interviewed some folk with some very interesting CVs. One chap had worked for ten years as roofer, before deciding that he was an 'experienced internet programming consultant.'*
A friend interviewed a night club doorman who just happened to be an 'web architect'. It turned out that he was also did community work for the police, but had written on his CV that he was 'a marital arts expert who in his spare time, helped the police with their enquiries.'
You are regulated by national/international board of some kind, who have the power to stop you practising if you screw up. In IT, if you cause thousands of pounds of data loss, you get another job.
I've also noticed that 'professional' careers do not seem to be affected by employment trends. I've never heard of mass lawyer layoffs.
What do you lot think?
More...
View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds