Study & Write T8 (Description of an IT professional)

 In this post I would like to provide my own thoughts on who is a professional and who can we call a professional in the world of IT. Also, I would like to compare a modern IT professional with an IT professional 20 years ago and reflect on some ideas mentioned in the Wiki of the course.

First of all, professionality has no specific meaning and may mean different things for different people. In my opinion, professionality is still more connected to the work itself than social aspects. If you are a professional, you know how to solve any problem related to your field and how to do your work effectively. Some people need to work in a team to solve a problem, some can manage it alone. Therefore, ability to work in a team is not a professional trait to me, though it may help a lot. So, I would say that professional traits are those traits that are needed to effectively solve any problem related to your field of work. This also applies to the field of IT. These are: adaptability, analytical thinking, desire to learn new things. One more important skill nowadays is creativity. This skill was not valued in companies during the first 10 years of 2000s. Workers were supposed to follow strict orders, but nowadays it is even encouraged to provide new ways of getting your job done.
In general, I would say that the differences end there.

I would also like to state that sharing your skills with others is not obligatory for being a professional. One can publish a very buggy software. The fact of sharing a product is present, but can we call the developer a professional? I would say no. Though, it is okay to make mistakes (even for professionals, as they are still people). So, if the developer is a professional, they will fix these bugs as soon as possible.

Having considered everything above, I would say that professionality is connected to how others see you, not how you see yourself, therefore, following simple rules of the etiquette is needed to be a professional. So, if you do not know how to behave in a society, you can't be called a professional.