Previously we asked about your ColdFusion comfort zone. Now let's tackle the big question: Are you a ColdFusion Professional?
Really? Let's find out.
First, it may help to define what we need by professional. Let's look at the dictionary definition.
A professional:
1. Is a person who follows a profession, especially a learned profession.
2. Is one who earns a living in a given or implied occupation: hired a professional to decorate the house.
3. Conforms to the standards of a profession: professional behavior.
4. Is a skilled practitioner; an expert.
Number 1 relates to the professions which typically require post-graduate training. By that we mean doctors, lawyers, and so on. That's not the case here, so let's move on.
Number 2 relates to money, as it basically says if you get paid for it, you're a "professional". And that mindset especially seems to hold true if it's your full-time job or occupation. It's a common conceit, but to my mind it falls short. Way short.
Number 3 strikes closer to the heart of the matter: Conforms to the standards of a profession: professional behavior. One way of looking at that is to say that you're a ColdFusion professional if you can all of the things (or more) that other ColdFusion professionals can do.
Another is simply "acting" like a professional. In a word: ethics. If you hire a professional photographer to shoot your wedding, then you expect him to show up when he's needed to show up, do what he says he can do, and deliver a professional result under any and all circumstances. No excuses.
Finally, number 4 says that a professional should be an expert in his chosen field.
Which again, should be obvious. An expert is hired to do a job. As such the expert is supposed to know HOW to do the job. And the expert is usually expected to know more than the average layman or amateur. After all, does it make sense to hire an "expert" who doesn't know what he's doing?
Would you?
So now we come down to MY definition: A professional is an expert in his field, and one who upholds the standards of his profession.
Meet those standards, and earning an income is simply a well-deserved side-effect. It's not just a case of meeting one of the applicable definitions, but all of them.
So how did you stack up? Are you a professional? In every sense of the word?
Next time we'll take a look at what it means to be a ColdFusion "expert".
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