Does the concept of professionalism apply to the creative indutries?

By Nathan Bayne

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A lot of people ask the above question a lot. The answer is yes. Professionalism does apply to the creative industries, and this will be talked about in further detail throughout the post.

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Being a Professional

Professionals are often looked at as someone who dresses smartly in the likes of a suit and tie and is more experienced more than the average person within their field of work. Professionals often gain a lot acquire a lot of skills through higher education and often have degrees. Although a lot of people within the creative industries do have degrees within their subject, many people are self-taught. Although people may have been self-taught and don't have a degree, it doesn't mean they are any less capable of completing a job that someone with a degree could complete. It is purely down to the experience of the individual.

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Professional and Non-Professional Responsibilities

The following list explains the responsibilities that professionals have to always adhere to when working on projects:

• The work they produce must be of high quality for every client.
• They must take care of all the work they do, mainly when the results could seriously affect a business or client (such as security for encrypted information).
• They must think about potential risks before going ahead with the job. They may need to talk to the client beforehand.

Yes, these are professional responsibilities, but they're also the same responsibilities for everyone else within the creative industries. Even if you aren't a professional, it is essential to speak to the client if you feel like there are potential problems. They must produce high-quality work to ensure that the client is happy with the service received, and they must take care with what they are working on to prevent anything majorly wrong from happening with what you're working on. These points help justify with professionalism applies to the creative industries.



Below are even more responsibilities that both professional and non-professional workers need to adhere to:

• Must stay committed to the project that you're working on. You can't do half of it and then give up. Even if you have some difficult obstacles in the way, you're expected to overcome these and get the work done.
• The work must be completed in good time. This applies to freelance workers and employees for companies. Your boss will expect you to be able to complete work within the deadline they set for you. Also, your clients won't all be patient to wait months for you to complete work. The same applies for both.
• You should never attempt to hide things or cover them out. Not only is this a very unprofessional thing to do, in most cases, you will be caught out. Not only with this affect your reputation within your industry, your client may also ask for a refund even after the work is completed or your boss may fire you.

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What you Should Do if You Are Not a Professional

Practice, Practice, Practice

If you feel like you're not quite at the level that you would like to be at, the main thing I would suggest to you is to practice whenever you can within your spare time. It can even be an hour or two a day if you can fit it in. It may not seem like much, but if you did two hours every day, that would amount to a total of 56 hours in 28 days. It can make more of an impact than you would expect. It keeps your mind refreshed and will make you work faster on projects you may have struggled on previously.

Purchase an Online Course

Yes, there are thousands upon thousands of free videos to watch on Youtube.com; however, the knowledge they provide you with aren't often as good as the information made for paid courses. Although some of you may be struggling for money, I highly suggest that you save someone money and purchase a course that will help teach you something that you're curious about or would like some more guidance on to familiarise yourself with the topic.

I would suggest you visit udemy.com, if you would like to get started with an online course.

Gain Experience through Clients

There is no quicker way to learn than through real-life client work. The more client work you do, the more experience you'll have. It's that simple. It forces you to overcome problems along the way because you need to get the work done because the work is being paid for. you can't avoid things that you may have usually avoided in your spare time. Keep on working and knowledge will gradually increase and before you know it, you will most likely be a professional within your industry.