Majority of people consider business and service as two different things but within service category one can segregate service into two parts one is a profession and other is employment and if you are one of those people who consider profession and employment same then you are wrong as there are many differences between the two. Let’s look at some of the important differences between profession and employment –
Profession and Employment Differences
Meaning
Profession refers to that work which requires special skill and knowledge so as to do a specialized job while employment refers to working for somebody else which may be sole proprietorship or partnership or company. Hence for example, if a doctor is visiting Microsoft campus for a checkup of Microsoft employees than that doctor is an example of professional while thousands of workers going daily to Microsoft campus for working is an example of employment.
Qualification
In the case of a profession, one needs to have qualification as well as required knowledge in order to do the work efficiently and effectively and that knowledge or work is same for all professional of that particular work. Hence, for example, all doctors will prescribe the same treatment for particular sickness while in case of employment one need to have qualification according to the job profile as well employer and that is the reason why one will find people with the same qualification doing different work in different companies as they are in employment and not in profession.
Earning
In case of profession the professional earn income in the form of professional fees for the services rendered by the professional besides these fees can vary from person to person, hence for example doctor in one area may take $100 for treatment of disease and another doctor may take $200 in other areas for treatment of the same disease. While in the case of employment the employees earn income in the form of salaries for the services rendered by the employees for their employers.
Capital Requirement
In the case of professional they need initial capital so as to set up their work, hence, for example, the doctor will need to have clinic or lawyer will need to have office so as to give services to their clients but as far as employment is concerned there is no need for any capital investment as you have to give your services and in return you get salary payment from the company. In simple words as far as the capital requirement is concerned employment is the best option if you do not have enough capital as own capital is a must in both professions as well as business.
Rules and Regulations
In case of the profession the professional has to follow a professional code of conduct and perform his or her services according to the code of conduct set by the apex professional body but as far as employment is concerned employee has to follow norms set by the employer and work within those norms. Hence for example if the employer has set work timing from 9 in the morning to 6 in the evening and if a worker wants to leave early than he or she has to take permission if he or she wants to leave early. In simple words, rules and regulations for a particular profession are universal that is they are the same everywhere while rules and regulations for employment are not universal and they are different in different companies.
As one can see from the above that profession and employment are poles apart from each and that is the reason why you should never this mistake of considering both profession and employment as the same thing.