What do you count as a 'professional' job?

A professional has to subscribe to a professional body in order to maintain their qualification and in return gets extra letters after their name to add to their degree/s.
They get a very dull monthly professional journal, which they don't read except for the job ads in the back.
This journal has tedious articles written by try-hards, and if you're really unlucky might have a fairly unfunny cartoon. There will be a letters page for retired professionals to deplore the younger ones.
On an annual basis you get an election to a committee of the professional body. Don't even think of standing and if you actually know a member or someone who aspires to be one then please, get a life.

I tend not to use the term, it's a bit outdated and of little use - unless you're on Mumsnet where I'm sure it will be used to prop up one group's sense of superiority over another.😂

A professional has membership of a professional body and qualifications awarded by that body. They can also be thrown out of that body if they behave unprofessionally and complaints can be made to that body. So Accountants, Lawyers, Doctors, Nurses, Midwives, Surveyors etc.

Yep that's what I think too.

Something that involves getting a professional qualification to do it surely? Eg. Chartered Accountant, Landscape Architect, Engineer etc... Or A teacher who has a PGCE.

A role that requires a degree or equivalent and professional registration with a professional body.

This sounds like a good definition.

Things like doctors, teachers, lawyers, dentists etc.

Not things like nurses, TAs, dental assistants etc as you never needed to go to university to do these (probably changed now).

I always think of getting your passport signed.
It has to be a professional and gives a list of professions that are acceptable.

Agreed, whiskersPete
Seems that some people are harping back to the 90s caricature of suit, briefcase, (giant) mobile phone, drinking in wine bars, etc.
This then makes recruitment consultants ‘professionals’ when in fact a huge majority of them are the most unprofessional people imaginable

*Degree/masters in that field

One that has a professional body, and which requires registration and a degree/masters in order to enter the field.

Having 'office-based' as a criterion for being a professional is absurd.

Doctors, teachers, dentists, chartered surveyors etc don't have offices and are all professionals as they needs to be qualified and registered with an awarding professional body to practise.

Absolutely nurses are professionals.

Nursing roles are much more established and the era of “carry on nurse” is long behind us all.

Nurses have a lot more accountability and knowledge these days and they can work much more autonomously with patients now as opposed to the doctors always taking the lead.

A job that requires specific qualifications snd registration with a professional body

Of course nursing is a profession Difficult Bloody Woman
I suspect you don’t know what a nurse actually does (you are not alone)

Obviously, there are lots of other jobs where you need qualifications and training but these are not higher, post A level qualifications, so they are not professions.

How do you categorise scientists in roles that require PhDs? Are they deemed 'professionals' if they're in an industry which requires CChem or whatever but not if they're in academic research or a company where being chartered isn't relevant (chartered by whom? in a global company).

There are policing degrees and apprenticeships too these days.

I've met plenty of people in a profession who did not always behave in a professional manner. The stand out was a former accountant who was struck off and went to prison for activity which went beyond the description of creative accounting. He still advises people on their tax and very good he is too if you like that kind of thing. But he can't call himself a chartered accountant any more.

Hence why this was a bring it to MN worthy discussion as I don't think there's actually a proper answer.

There is a proper answer. Look up the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)- that offers a clear definition of a professional role.

And teachers and nurses definitely count!

Nursing is absolutely a profession...a bit worrying how nurses are viewed nowadays. I'm not a nurse but i'm an Allied health professional. We are members of a professional body, have a registration and have to undergo cpd.

I would say a professional job is one which requires a university degree or other higher level qualifications leading to chartered status or membership of a professional body. Eg doctor, dentist, teacher, chartered accountant, solicitor, architect, nurse, chartered engineer.

Obviously, there are lots of other jobs where you need qualifications and training but these are not higher, post A level qualifications, so they are not professions.

I work in the careers sector ( was previously a careers adviser) and We always defined a professional job as a role that required specialist knowledge and high level qualifications (at least a degree) or significant experience.

The national office for statistics categorise jobs using the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) and they list what they consider a professional job.

A profession is a job for which certain qualifications are mandatory and usually which is governed by a body which may strike you off for not meeting agreed standards. Medicine, law, accountancy for instance.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a job. That's what most of us have. Sometimes people who have jobs earn more than people who have professions.

My job is often described as a profession. It's not, it's a trade and I'm proud of it. But I understand the confusion because even people who do my job describe it as a profession. They are wrong which is ironic since a major part of our trade is being able to describe things accurately.

It''s a bit like having a career or as it's usually more accurately known, having a series of jobs in the same industry.

@Hudsonriver 🤣🤣🤣🤣 @ Holby.
What on earth does consulting rooms mean? Nursing has moved along @DifficultBloodyWoman from your era

Nurses are accountable for their own practice, as are Midwives.
Doctors do not line manage or oversee the nursing profession in any way at all.
Its a completely different area despite what you see on Holby.

an individual who is a qualified member of a professional body, someone who continuously updates their knowledge, is competent, and uses their skills in practice.

I think there are three layers... 'The professions' as pp already stated, are jobs that you have to be specifically qualified to do and which require registration with a professional body i.e. doctors, lawyers, dentists, teachers (someone said registration wasn't required for teachers any more, but it certainly is in Scotland where I am). Then there are professional jobs, which are probably largely office based but not necessarily - imo this one is harder to define and more based on the traditional white collar/blue collar definition. Then there is being professional, as in acting professionally, which surely everybody in all jobs should be. None of the definitions are about money/salary. Trades can often earn more the professions for example.