What is a profession?

According to Daedalus, a profession should have these six characteristics:
 

1. A committment to the interest of clients in particular, and the welfare of society in general.
 

2. Possess a body of theory or special knowledge.
 

3. Possess a specialized set of professional skills, practices, and performances unique to the profession.
 

4. The developed capacity to render judgments with integrity under conditions of ethical uncertainty.
 

5. An organized approach to learning from experience, both individually and collectively, and thus of growing new knowledge from the context of practice.
 

6. The development of a professional community responsible for the oversight and monitoring of quality in both practice and professional educators.
 

Overall, the primary feature of any profession is to serve responsibly, selflessly, and wisely and to establish an inherent ethical relationship between the professional and the general society.