Continued Research into Professionalism and Development

After searching through the buffalo library catalog, I came across a great article by Neary Siobhan that talks about how universities that have academic and career advisers produce graduates that are more ready to become a functional member of society. The article goes on to talk about how students that are given the opportunity to speak with professionals and have the ability to experience the real world work space, are much more likely to not only understand what is expected of them from a professionalism standpoint but also be able to adapt in difficult situations.

I couldn’t agree with this article more. The main thing through everything I have read and have been personally experienced is that professionalism isn’t one defined way to act but rather is different to every situation and person. That is why being able to observe professionals is key as it gives students a chance to see how others act and develop their own way on how to behave themselves.

I am a believer that you develop soft skills not from reading articles on the skills, but by going out and seeing how people behave in the real world. Personally, I have been doing this throughout the past 8 weeks coaching football. During the first week myself and another young coach were kind of put on the back burner, and were secondary position coaches, meaning we ran the drills the more experienced coaches told us to with them watching and coaching kids up. After that first week we got a sense of how to act in the drills and the way to interact with the players. In week two we were able to run our own drills with the coaches still watching intently but we had more control over everything. Now, seven weeks into the season, we run our own drills without the other coaches around and have the players full attention and respect. There isn’t anything I could have read that would have taught me how to interact with the players but rather I had to see how others did it and develop my own philosophy.

At the end of the day there is only one concrete thing I have learned about professionalism: Every person has their own idea of what professionalism looks like. And none of them are wrong. When it comes to soft skills whether it is communication, time-management, or professionalism, every person has their own thoughts on what it looks like. That is why these skills need to be continually adapting through experiences in the real world. If there is one thing that you can remember, it a quote by Cecil Castle that “Professionalism is a frame of mind, not a paycheck”. Being professional doesn’t mean that you have a job and get paid. Professionalism is how you act in everyday interactions with coworkers, bosses, and consumers. And the only way to get better is to go out and do it.

Neary, S. (2014). Reclaiming professional identity through postgraduate professional development: careers practitioners reclaiming their professional selves. British Journal Of Guidance & Counselling, 42(2), 199–210. doi:10.1080/03069885.2013.869790