"Young Professionals"

steddyeddy wrote: »

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

Ah here, that's completely taking the piss. What an amazingly arbitrary thing to filter out possible partners by.

What a fool.

osarusan wrote: »

...'...the real world'.

As far as I can make out, this is code for some mythical place where being poor and dumb is righteous and cool.

CaptainR wrote: »

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?

I find that once I am carrying a few bob plus the fact that I am well hung does the trick for me.

steddyeddy wrote: »

No different to professionals only IMHO. I do agree she's a tool by the way.

If you're in the midst of a career, working full-time etc. it can make sense on at least some level to want to be with someone at a similar stage of life to you.

Deciding you don't want to be with someone because they are interested in maths or psychology doesn't have any logical basis.

steddyeddy wrote: »

I have a PhD level in a STEM subject and work on government research and young professional isn't a term I use. I wouldn't go near anyone that uses it either.

Do you pay dues to a professional body which has strict terms of membership that affects your work and has a procedure for removing unwanted members?

steddyeddy wrote: »

I have a PhD level in a STEM subject and work on government research and young professional isn't a term I use. I wouldn't go near anyone that uses it either.

"Young professional" doesn't even have any useful meaning in itself, devoid of context. One could be a professional cleaner, or a professional any amount of things that don't require third-level qualifications but still need doing, and doing well, or dare I say professionally. I'm in the IT game as well, the last 25 years or so, at Principal Systems Engineer level, and I wouldn't describe myself as a "Middle-aged Professional" because that would a) be of no conceivable use to anyone outside of a dog with a mallet rammed up his hole and b) make me sound like a wanker.

"Young professional" on those dating sites is basically code for someone with some sort of degree, and landlords tend to use it in it's slightly different meaning of someone who has some sort of salaried job that's likely to last a while.

"Professional" has been a synonym for "white collar" for quite a long time. In the classical sense it refers to anyone who has a job that could be referred to as a "profession": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profession

Jobs like grocers, bakers, carpenters, masons, builders, and later electricians and plumbers rarely required any formal education. Most of the education was on-the-job experience or an apprentice/master relationship.
But someone became a carpenter by just making stuff. And when they opened their own carpentry shop they got work through reputation alone. By contrast an accountant or solicitor would engage in plenty of on-the-job experience but only earned the right to use the title by passing exams.

In recent times though most of the major trades have involved some degree of formal education, either due to legislation or self-organisation.

My understanding is that the use of the word "professional" meaning "I get paid for this" is a much more recent use, arising from the situation where people now get paid for things which would previously have been considered hobbies or vocations - sportsperson, painter, musician, etc. Mainly because the industrial revolution led to an explosion in hobbies as people now had more free time and money.
Previous to that the notion of being an "amateur" anything was somewhat anathema - you didn't have time to engage in dalliances that cost money and earned nothing. So there was no dichotomy - the only people who engaged in hobbies which didn't earn money were the ruling classes. A painter was a painter and if he didn't get paid for painting, he starved to death.

MeatTwoVeg wrote: »

...There's plenty of people, myself included, who wouldn't have any interest in someone who's unemployed or in a menial job.
It shows a lack of ambition.

What exactly do we mean by "menial job" here? Some random dogsbody role that requires no particular skills other than breathing and basic perambulation, or anything outside of college educated?

Glenster wrote: »

A job joe blogs could walk in off the street and perform reasonably well with two weeks training.

Quite so indeed. So are these YPs seeking YPs cutting out a vast swathe of people, in incredibly diverse occupations demonstrating an incredible variety of skills and talents, in the void between just-about-able-to-pick-your-nose-and-walk-at-the-same-time and college educated salaried something-or-other?

gleNine wrote: »

That would be Lawyer, Accountant and many other jobs considered "professional" out the window - no?

Ammmmm I don't think so......

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

I think I've found my niche, I'll start a dating site for single professionals holding arts degrees from Irish Universities.... jackpot.

Glenster wrote: »

...If you had said Banker or IT professional I would have agreed with you.

If you mean in the sense that it usually takes about two weeks to undo the damage done by university and begin the process of making proper programmers out of them, then even I would tend to agree. Otherwise, be advised that the term "IT Professional" these days can be (ab)used to describe everyone from the tape-monkey to the VP of Engineering, and a cast of thousands in-between. :pac:

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

...Isn't it awfully funny the number of people here getting their knickers in a twist over someone deciding they'd like a partner who has something more than many of them have to offer?

Lads, ye were never at the races.

http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/unix-koans/methodology-consultant.html