Profession:

• A person possessing specialized skills, knowledge, training and specific professional qualification is capable of providing certain specific services to the society. Such a person is called a professional and the work he does is called his profession.
• For example, doctors, lawyers, charted accountants are all called professionals.
• Over and above acquiring skills and education, a professional also needs to get himself registered with the body governing that profession. For example, a charted accountant (CA), needs to take membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), get registered and he then work as per the code of conduct established by such bodies.
• A professional provides professional services to its clients and in return receives fees as his profit.
  A person can also obtain professional qualification and work as an employee and earn salary rather than fees. For example, a doctor may join a hospital, a lawyer may join a law firm, etc.

Characteristics of profession are as follows:

• A professional needs to obtain specialized knowledge, skills and professional education. For example, a doctor needs to medically learn how to treat a patient.
• A professional working independently charges fees for services he provides to his clients. The amount of fees depends on type of profession, types of skill, knowledge and experience.
• The primary objective of a professional is to provide services.
• Profession can be called as an independent economic activity.
• A professional does not produce tangible products but provides services. For example, a lawyer fighting a case for his client (customer) is providing this service to his client. In this regard, a customer pays for fighting a case, getting cured of a disease, getting income tax returned filed, etc.
• A professional has to abide by the code of conduct established by the professional association where he is registered.
• Just like business, monetary return is uncertain in profession because it depends on the number of customer that goes to a professional to take his service.