Professionalism

Conduct a Google image search using the word professionaland you'll see lots of confident, smiling people wearing suits and shaking hands. And maybe that is what the idea of being professional is for you.

Of course, you might be an expert at what you do and not be overly concerned with suits and and grooming. That depends on your work context.

However, clothes are the easy bit – professionalism is about more than just appearances. It encompasses:

University life provides many opportunities for you to become aware of and to practise professional values.  This section focuses on some of the key values that professions, industries and organisations most commonly attach importance to: being accountable, ethical, honest, responsible, respectful and having integrity.

Professional values

Professionals need to be committed to their roles and their industry. Ideally, professional jobs are worth doing – they have meaning and they make a difference. Professional people value their own job and are right to expect that others will respect their performance. Most professions have Codes of Conduct which are underpinned by professional values.