"Young Professionals"

CaptainR · 13-12-2016 04:18PM #1

So I just seen another one of those ads for Elite Singles the dating site for "Young Professionals".

What's the craic with one set of workers being called professionals? It seems to have become a more widespread term in recent times. I don't understand it at all.

It was my understanding that if you do a job for money you are a professional in that field. Hence professional footballers. Professional painter etc. And if you don't get paid your an amateur like an amateur photographer.

One of the lads reckons its because the office guys who aren't an IT specialist or account manager or whatever are given this title because they dont really do anything. But he just thinks he's funny.

I know in the states they use white collar and blue collar as a system of classing different types of work.

"Professional" just comes across as arrogant I think (although those dating ads could be colouring my view)

What say you?

ScumLord · 13-12-2016 04:23PM

Sounds like a dating site for prostitutes.

theteal · 13-12-2016 04:26PM

Wasn't there a thread on this "professional" lark last week-ish?

The Raptor · 13-12-2016 04:27PM

I hate the word professional. Especially on adds on daft.ie. Professionals wanted. What does that mean? Workers or someone who doesn't trash the place and pays rent and bills.

kfallon · 13-12-2016 04:33PM

The Raptor wrote: »

I hate the word professional. Especially on adds on daft.ie. Professionals wanted. What does that mean? Workers or someone who doesn't trash the place and pays rent and bills.

No students and/or unemployed!

dont bother · 13-12-2016 04:45PM

anyone who thinks of themselves as a "young profressional" is probably a horrible cvnt who is dead inside

13-12-2016 04:50PM

In proper use it's supposed to be someone in a handful of fields that have specific qualifications necessary to enter and professional bodies which regulate them (ie. Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer, Accountant and so on).

In practice, people just use it to mean "white collar". What's more annoying is a bunch of the professional titles aren't legally protected in Ireland either - so you get "engineers" who aren't actually engineers.

dont bother · 13-12-2016 04:53PM

L wrote: »

In proper use it's supposed to be someone in a handful of fields that have specific qualifications necessary to enter and professional bodies which regulate them (ie. Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer, Accountant and so on).

In practice, people just use it to mean "white collar". What's more annoying is a bunch of the professional titles aren't legally protected in Ireland either - so you get "engineers" who aren't actually engineers.

but WHO ACTUALLY CARES what anyone else is doing?
i dont!?!

i absolutely can't understand for the life of me why and how people have gotten so greedy for cash that they will work in these fields.......actually you know what... it'll only derail the thread.

drunkmonkey · 13-12-2016 04:59PM

Blessed be the greedy.

13-12-2016 05:03PM

dont bother wrote: »

but WHO ACTUALLY CARES what anyone else is doing?
i dont!?!

Well, in their original intent, you probably do care that your Doctor is actually a trained medic, and the Civil Engineers who sign off buildings as safe are actually qualified to tell if those buildings are safe.

In private life, I don't get why people care myself either.

dont bother wrote: »

i absolutely can't understand for the life of me why and how people have gotten so greedy for cash that they will work in these fields.......actually you know what... it'll only derail the thread.

I don't think greed has much to do with people working in professional fields. Most of the time, you'd earn more money doing something in finance or programming and ditching the professional qualification.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 13-12-2016 05:04PM

The Raptor wrote: »

I hate the word professional. Especially on adds on daft.ie. Professionals wanted. What does that mean? Workers or someone who doesn't trash the place and pays rent and bills.

Someone who works for a living as opposed to someone who gets paid for sitting at home scratching their arse all day.

El_Duderino 09 · 13-12-2016 05:11PM

It's linked with the term 'elite' that Trump used, and 'the people we dick of experts' that Michael Gove used.

Basically the lower down the labour market you are the more professionals there are above you. Hence the resentment in the way Trump, Gove and the OP are using the term.

It's a catch all term for clean work, don't by college educated people, and generally reasonably well paid with a career progression path.

Get your pitchforks and all that

13-12-2016 05:11PM

It was all the rage in the 80's

"Yuppie" (/ˈjʌpi/; short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional")[1][2] is a term that was introduced in the early 1980s and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as an individual who is a "member of a socio-economic group comprising young professional people working in cities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuppie

jimgoose · 13-12-2016 06:40PM

It just means some gowl who has some gowl Jerb that doesn't involve working with his/her hands. :pac:

15-12-2016 09:54AM

yeah I agree with you OP, it's such a crock of ****! I've seen landlords request professionals only to have their house wrecked by a load of young teachers!!

That's not a slight on teachers, I just say that because when I called one landlord and asked him to typify a "Professional", he answered, you know, nurses, treachers etc!!! he was a ****wit of the highest calibre, gold medal standard!

I have to laugh at those Elite singles ads too!! Oh so your mickey/vagina is so highly prized, you're having a trouble finding a suitor?

you can see some twats brainstorming in a room, "c'mon people we need ideas, we need to set our site apart from the dregs out there, no more johnny come latelys, ghostings and booty calls at this address, no no, take that trash downtown to your maybefriends or plentyoffish thank you very much!!!!

Winterlong · 15-12-2016 09:57AM

Anyone who would describe themselves as a young professional needs a good dose of reality.
And a spell working the bog.

fizzypish · 15-12-2016 10:06AM

dont bother wrote: »

anyone who thinks of themselves as a "young profressional" is probably a horrible cvnt who is dead inside

Thats me so. The dead inside bit is accurate and you could probably find some people who think I'm a cvnt. Someone else said it but young professional is another way of saying not unemployed/student.

Mr.Plough · 15-12-2016 10:29AM

dont bother wrote: »

i absolutely can't understand for the life of me why and how people have gotten so greedy for cash that they will work in these fields.......actually you know what... it'll only derail the thread.

There's much easier ways to make cash then becoming a Doctor. I'm an engineer, and would likely be earning more money had I went into finance instead, probably be miserable too.

I've nothing against the word professional, but I'd use it to describe someone who is qualified/experienced in their occupation and does it to a high standard. As such, you can have professional bartenders, waiters, electricians and engineers. Just like you can have unprofessional bartenders, waiters, electricians and engineers.

It's use as a term to describe someone with a third level education, which a lot of people associate it with, is just elitist imo.

Shenshen · 15-12-2016 10:45AM

rusty cole wrote: »

I have to laugh at those Elite singles ads too!! Oh so your mickey/vagina is so highly prized, you're having a trouble finding a suitor?

you can see some twats brainstorming in a room, "c'mon people we need ideas, we need to set our site apart from the dregs out there, no more johnny come latelys, ghostings and booty calls at this address, no no, take that trash downtown to your maybefriends or plentyoffish thank you very much!!!!

I'm not sure about the term "professional", personally, but I can see the idea behind something like Elite Singles. A while after my parents split up, my mom had a hard time getting her social life back on track - she had spent a few years working, upskilling and looking after the family and found that the few friends she had when she split from my father had drifted away. More than anything she wanted to get out of the house a bit and live a little, so one of her friends and us kids tried to get her into online dating a bit, just to see where it would go.

Now, my mom has a university degree and had recently spent a few years doing post-graduate courses. She's interested in philosophy, archaeology and general anthropology and sociology. She likes classical music, loves going to museums and the theatre.
So when we put together her profile, we made sure to politely point out that she may have a hard time finding common ground with, say, a factory worker whose ideal weekend is going on the drink and watching football.
The reactions were disappointing. Either people didn't read her profile at all and sent her mis-spelled, vacuous messages. Or else they sent her nasty messages that she should would be happy to even land someone with a job as she was being such an arrogant bi*tch.
She gave up on the attempt quite quickly.

So while yes, those ads come across as arrogant and annoying, I can see the market for people who are looking for someone a little more educated and matching their own interests.

El_Duderino 09 · 15-12-2016 10:51AM

Winterlong wrote:

Anyone who would describe themselves as a young professional needs a good dose of reality. And a spell working the bog.

I've never heard anyone describe themselves as a professional in that sense. Any job that involves mastery of skills is a profession

The term 'professional person' is used by loads of people to add weight to an opinion. E.g. 'they said she had 6 months to live. And these were professional people. So it must be a miracle'.

Why the vitriol towards the term though?

Permabear · 15-12-2016 11:26AM

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El_Duderino 09 · 15-12-2016 11:34AM

Permabear wrote:

This post had been deleted.

Given the rise of populism of late and the deamonisation of education and knowledge, I think in 10 years we'll look back and be shocked that there was a time when the word 'elite' was used in a positive way e.g. 'Elite Dating'

Winterlong · 15-12-2016 11:36AM

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

I've never heard anyone describe themselves as a professional in that sense. Any job that involves mastery of skills is a profession

The term 'professional person' is used by loads of people to add weight to an opinion. E.g. 'they said she had 6 months to live. And these were professional people. So it must be a miracle'.

Why the vitriol towards the term though?

My comments are in terms of the OP, a dating site and those who would chose it based on it's target market - young professionals. As if any other working person is not 'professional'.

El_Duderino 09 · 15-12-2016 11:37AM

Winterlong wrote:

My comments are in terms of the OP, a dating site and those who would chose it based on it's target market - young professionals. As if any other working person is not 'professional'.

Are you confused about the meaning of the term or annoyed at how it's used?

Winterlong · 15-12-2016 11:41AM

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Are you confused about the meaning of the term or annoyed at how it's used?

What?

El_Duderino 09 · 15-12-2016 11:43AM

Winterlong wrote:

What?

Winterlong wrote:

My comments are in terms of the OP, a dating site and those who would chose it based on it's target market - young professionals. As if any other working person is not 'professional'.

I don't know what the problem is. Is it with the application of the word or are you confused about the meaning of the word?

Meaning seems fairly simple, application seems to be getting up some people's nose.

Permabear · 15-12-2016 11:43AM

This post has been deleted.

El_Duderino 09 · 15-12-2016 11:45AM

Permabear wrote:

This post had been deleted.

True enough.
'I hate it when other people are elitist, at least I'd never end up with somebody... like that'

steddyeddy · 15-12-2016 11:55AM

No one's true egalitarian. A friend of mine puts no arts grads on her dating profile while complianing about stereotyping in real life.

Badly Drunk Boy · 15-12-2016 11:58AM

Winterlong wrote: »

Anyone who would describe themselves as a young professional needs a good dose of reality.
And a spell working the bog.

I wonder if The Backwards Man has ever considered setting up a team-building course on the bog for these 'young professionals'. He'd be getting money for people helping to the bring turf home for him. Win-win!

osarusan · 15-12-2016 12:00PM

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Why the vitriol towards the term though?

Maybe it has taken on some kind of snobby/elitist connotations, but when you read garbage like this:

dont bother wrote: »

anyone who thinks of themselves as a "young profressional" is probably a horrible cvnt who is dead inside

you have to wonder where that connotation comes from?

I imagine a lot of it comes from people who waffle on about how huge swathes of other people 'would never survive in the real world'.

"Young Professionals"

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