"Professional" in today's world- some thoughts

"Professional" is generally regarded as something related to a Profession and conforming to its standards. As a noun, Professional means a person following a Profession. Which brings us to Profession- a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation. (Courtesy: Dictionary.com) From an analysis of the above words, the following characteristics of Profession/ Professional come to the fore- Standards, knowledge, academics, preparation. What I feel when I think about these characteristics is that a Professional should have sound knowledge, should be good at academics, should continuously prepare meticulously for the various challenges in his work life and should carry out his activites conforming to certain standards in life. I enrolled myself for a couple of Professional courses completely believing in the above, managed to clear the various exams (albeit after repeated attempts) and started with what I thought is going to be a long, rewarding and exciting professional career. 3.5 years into my professional life and today I feel, "professional" is a much maligned, much abused and much misused word in the current cut throatish corporate scenario. 16 years earlier, our country opened its doors to the world. LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) was the key word and from then on, our economy has moved from strength to strength. Unemployment has ceased to be a problem, Foreign Exchange Reserves are in excess, Rupee is strengthening continuously against Dollar and the Indian Economy is expected to be the 3rd largest economy in the world by 2025, next only to US and China (overtaking Japan in due course). Professionals, they say, have never had it better. Medical research is opening up new avenues for Doctors, Software is luring Engineers by the dozen, Back office operations are attracting the Finance professionals and there is wide spread happiness and contentment on all faces that shout in unison- "This is the best time to work in India". In the middle of increasing opportunities, fatter pay checks and reverse brain drain, is somebody noticing the degradation that has befallen on the word "Professional"? Suddenly, everyone is professional, every activity is professional and every means to a professional end is, well, again professional. It definitely is a world of cut throat competition, one upmanship and survival of the fittest out there. But, does that mean that one needs to compormise on one's standards, thoughts and beliefs to make one's superiors happy or to earn a promotion or a few extra brownies??? Things have reached a stage where all a professional today is concerned about is the end. To achieve an end in view, one is ready to go to any extent- certifying untrue to be true, trampling others on one's way to success, deceiving others to achieve one's end- all this without batting an eyelid. Today's avant grade professional institutes are interested in creating next gen professionals who firmly believe it is only the end that matters, not the means. In the middle of all this, one really feels the word "professional" has lost it's meaning, significance and value. If professional is added as an adjective, it looks as if anything can be justified. Sample this- Professional rivalry, Professional disclosure, Professional non disclosure. Celebrated books and movies are made about Professional crooks, Professional con men and Professional killers. All this reducing the word "professional" to the standards of the world's oldest Profession! Mark Twain had earlier remarked- There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. The time is just right to rephrase it- There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and professional lies.