On Tue, 16 Sep 2014, Miles Fidelman wrote:
David Lang wrote:
From a discussion on what makes a "Professional" writer, but I think the
definition is a good one.
?professional? means 1) someone whose work can determine his client?s life
and/or liberty, and 2) who usually deals with clients on a one-on-one
basis, where the client is unlikely to be able to judge the quality of the
work at least until it?s too late to make a difference. These two things
define the level of trustability in the competence of the professional that
is required.
I would probably add to #1 "or end up costing a very large amount of money"
defined as a large multiplier of what the client is paying for your
service.
Our work sure qualifies under the first point, and while large shops have
checks in place, Snowden has shown that even the NSA can't prevent a rouge
Sysadmin from doing series damage, and is no different than a large
Engineering or Law firm that can attempt to put in similar checks, but
can't possibly hope to prevent all problems.
I was under the impression that "professional" usually referred to:
- paid for one's work (vs. amateur)
- educational credentials
- usually, but not always, licensing (as in doctor, lawyer, professional
engineer - with software engineer being in the "not licensed" category)
- responsible to a professional code of ethics
The problem is that none of these criteria have really worked when applied to
Systems Administration
Paid for one's work is too broad (it covers teens building the little-league
website)
We don't have any education credentials (and in this field, I don't think we
should)
Licensing is a sticky subject, in large part because of the question of why
should you need to have a license (which this new definition addresses). Every
time the subject has been discussed it devolves into a "why do we need
licensing", "because professionals are licensed" loop.
code of ethics may be part and parcel of an organized profession, but a code of
ethics doesn't make a profession (especially when it can't be enforced by
excluding those who don't comply)
As I said, this came up in a discussion on defining what a "professional" writer
is, with one of the other suggestions being "A writer is a Professional when
their income from writing forms a dependable portion of the household budget"
So there are very clearly a lot of uses for the term Professional.
Many people in LOPSA have expressed interest in raising System Administration
from professional (as in making your living in the field) to Professional (as in
Engineer, Lawyer, Accountant, etc).
David Lang
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