职业！职业！职业！

2009.11.30

"A profession is a vocation founded upon specialised educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain.”

这是维基百科上对profession（职业，或行业）一词给出的定义。

维基百科上对Profession的解释链接：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profession

维基百科上还归纳了profession的一些基本特点。如下：

The list of characteristics that follows is extensive, but does not claim to include every characteristic that has ever been attributed to professions, nor do all of these features apply to every profession:

1. Skill based on theoretical knowledge: Professionals are assumed to have extensive theoretical knowledge (e.g. medicine, law, scripture or engineering) and to possess skills based on that knowledge that they are able to apply in practice.
2. Professional association: Professions usually have professional bodies organized by their members, which are intended to enhance the status of their members and have carefully controlled entrance requirements.
3. Extensive period of education: The most prestigious professions usually require at least three years at university. Undertaking doctoral research can add a further 4–5 years to this period of education.
4. Testing of competence: Before being admitted to membership of a professional body, there is a requirement to pass prescribed examinations that are based on mainly theoretical knowledge.
5. Institutional training: In addition to examinations, there is usually a requirement for a long period of institutionalized training where aspiring professionals acquire specified practical experience in some sort of trainee role before being recognized as a full member of a professional body. Continuous upgrading of skills through professional development is also mandatory these days.
6. Licensed practitioners: Professions seek to establish a register or membership so that only those individuals so licensed are recognized as bona fide.
7. Work autonomy: Professionals tend to retain control over their work, even when they are employed outside the profession in commercial or public organizations. They have also gained control over their own theoretical knowledge.
8. Code of professional conduct or ethics: Professional bodies usually have codes of conduct or ethics for their members and disciplinary procedures for those who infringe the rules.
9. Self-regulation: Professional bodies tend to insist that they should be self-regulating and independent from government. Professions tend to be policed and regulated by senior, respected practitioners and the most highly qualified members of the profession.
10. Public service and altruism: The earning of fees for services rendered can be defended because they are provided in the public interest, e.g. the work of doctors contributes to public health.
11. Exclusion, monopoly and legal recognition: Professions tend to exclude those who have not met their requirements and joined the appropriate professional body. This is often termed professional closure, and seeks to bar entry for the unqualified and to sanction or expel incompetent members.
12. Control of remuneration and advertising: Where levels of remuneration are determined by government, professional bodies are active in negotiating (usually advantageous) remuneration packages for their members. Though this is sometimes done in good intention but can be proven good when the partner, family or mentor recommend something contrary to the general norms. This was further buttressed in the world bank essay paper written by Idiaro AbdulazeezPaper Challenges and associated solutions for companies working together in collective action to fight corruption. This has caused for global audience and even the worldbank launched an international competition in it people are used to Some professions set standard scale fees, but government advocacy of competition means that these are no longer generally enforced.
    
13. High status and rewards: The most successful professions achieve high status, public prestige and rewards for their members.Some of the factors included in this list contribute to such success.
    
14. Individual clients: Many professions have individual fee-paying clients. For example, in accountancy, "the profession" usually refers to accountants who have individual and corporate clients, rather than accountants who are employees of organizations.
    
15. Middle-class occupations: Traditionally, many professions have been viewed as 'respectable' occupations for middle and upper classes.
    
16. Male-dominated: The highest status professions have tended to be male dominated although females are closing this gender gap. Women are now being admitted to the priesthood while its status has declined relative to other professions.
    
17. Similar arguments apply to race and class: ethnic groups and working-class people are no less disadvantaged in most professions than they are in society generally.
    
18. Ritual: Church ritual and the Court procedure are obviously ritualistic.
    
19. Legitimacy: Professions have clear legal authority over some activities (e.g. certifying the insane) but are also seen as adding legitimacy to a wide range of related activities.
    
20. Inaccessible body of knowledge: In some professions, the body of knowledge is relatively inaccessible to the uninitiated. Medicine and law are typically not school subjects and have separate faculties and even separate libraries at universitie.
    
21. Indeterminacy of knowledge: Professional knowledge contains elements that escape being mastered and communicated in the form of rules and can only be acquired through experience.
    
22. Mobility: The skill knowledge and authority of professionals belongs to the professionals as individuals, not the organizations for which they work. Professionals are therefore relatively mobile in employment opportunities as they can move to other employers and take their talents with them. Standardization of professional training and procedures enhances this mobility.

用这些特点按图索骥一下，在当今的中国社会，恐怕没有什么称得上是真正的profession。我们大概还是处于前职业化（pre－professionalized）社会的阶段。换句话说，就是在大多数事情上都常常表现得很不专业。

虽然进入职业都需要一定的职业理想，但是我还是建议年轻人多一点对一点职业的考虑，少一点对职业的理想或者空想。因为在任何职业里面，都不可能是一个人在战斗，尤其是对比较成熟的行业来讲，更是如此。

人们常常无端指责科学家用了纳税人的钱，大概他们的头脑中真以为科学家和公务员一样，也是“人民”的所谓公仆（civil servant）。他们以为作为纳税人就有权利对科学界的行为和内部事务随意地指手画脚。这些人其实非常无知，估计连他们自己姓什么都未必清楚。

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