Professionalism

Professionalism is nothing but pursuit of an activity as an occupation. You can choose any profession and succeed in it. But professionalism matters in every profession. Professionalism is not about money only. It has various other dimensions as well. So many times we hear this phrase that this particular person is professional. We all have our own definitions of it. I am not trying to redefine it here but just want to add various dimensions to it for software professionals.

So, what makes you a real professional? One can start with attitude. Your attitude is the most important thing. You should have positive attitude otherwise it will be difficult to achieve results. In today’s result oriented world, having the right attitude in conjunction with passion and desire to work will give fruits of success. Typically, people crib about bad working conditions, salary factor, partiality etc. In larger organizations, you will always find some reason to blame for. But if you have positive attitude then it will emit positive energy and ultimately positive results. No matter what happens, you should concentrate on tasks in your hand. While doing people management since last few years, I find a very common trend. People just carry their outside/personal/family problems to workplaces. And that affects your attitude, your working style and ultimately output. I believe that ability to ‘Switch on and off’ is the key factor in being a true professional. Irrespective of all the problems, you should concentrate on job in your hand. You just cannot run away from your basic job duties because of the blame game. You can be right or wrong as well but that should not take away your focus from job in hand. One thing you should always remember that you are getting paid for doing your job. That job can be anything from writing code to painting walls. For example, if you have heated arguments with your driver then it does not mean that your driver should drive your car carelessly. You as an employer will not accept it. Right? Similarly, if you have problems at the work place while working on live projects or products in Software industry; then that do not mean that it should affect your customers. Customers should get high quality products because that is why they are paying for. Isn’t it? Young generation developers may find lot of job opportunities but they should also concentrate on professionalism. You can be a child at home. BUT you cannot afford to be a child or behave like a child at work. That will not be tolerated any way. So, having right attitude and positive energy is equally important.

You should have right kind of skill sets required for your job. Of course, having right attitude is not sufficient. It has to be supplemented with right kind of skills. Most of the times, you will be given tasks to work on new technology features. You just should not run away from these tasks just because you are not aware about it. You have to train yourself continuously to acquire desired skill set required for your job. Consider you are the best batsman in the world and you have been asked to open an innings without a bat in your hand. That is the role of skill set. You have to have that kind of bat of skills if you want to bat for your team in any cricket match. ;)

Communication is also equally important pillar of the professionalism. You have to have communication skills. You should be able to express your selves. You should be able to understand what has been told to you. You should able to understand requirements. You should be able to write professional business mails. In short you have to excel in verbal as well as written communication. Then it is has to be in conjunction with manners. It is all about how you talk to your managers, sub-ordinates, customers etc. Trust me, how you greet people is also counted sometimes. Giving a smile or saying hello to the people around you is not going to harm you. But it definitely portrays positive picture of you.

Dear friends, these are just few petals from the professionalism flower box. As and how you march forward in your career you will go on finding other petals from the box. :)

Cheers,
Amol