Main Difference
The main difference between Career and Profession is that the Career is a course or progress through life and Profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training.
Career
A career is an individual’s metaphorical “journey” through learning, work and other aspects of life. There are a number of ways to define career and the term is used in a variety of ways.
Profession
A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested objective counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain. The term is a truncation of the term “liberal profession”, which is, in turn, an Anglicization of the French term “profession libérale”. Originally borrowed by English users in the 19th century, it has been re-borrowed by international users from the late 20th, though the (upper-middle) class overtones of the term do not seem to survive retranslation: “liberal professions” are, according to the European Union’s Directive on Recognition of Professional Qualifications (2005/36/EC) “those practiced on the basis of relevant professional qualifications in a personal, responsible and professionally independent capacity by those providing intellectual and conceptual services in the interest of the client and the public”.
Medieval and early modern tradition recognized only three professions: divinity, medicine, and law – the so-called “learned professions”.
Major milestones which may mark an occupation being identified as a profession include:
an occupation becomes a full-time occupation
the establishment of a training school
the establishment of a university school
the establishment of a local association
the establishment of a national association of professional ethics
the establishment of state licensing laws
Applying these milestones to the historical sequence of development in the United States shows surveying achieving professional status first (note that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln all worked as land surveyors before entering politics), followed by medicine, actuarial science, law, dentistry, civil engineering, logistics, architecture and accounting.
With the rise of technology and occupational specialization in the 19th century, other bodies began to claim professional status: mechanical engineering, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, psychology, nursing, teaching, librarianship, optometry and social work, each of which could claim, using these milestones, to have become professions by 1900.
Just as some professions rise in status and power through various stages, others may decline. Disciplines formalized more recently, such as architecture, now have equally long periods of study associated with them.
Although professions may enjoy relatively high status and public prestige, not all professionals earn high salaries, and even within specific professions there exist significant inequalities of compensation; in law, for example, a corporate/insurance defense lawyer working on a billable-hour basis may earn several times what a prosecutor or public defender earns.
Career (noun)
One’s calling in life; a person’s occupation; one’s profession.
Career (noun)
General course of action or conduct in life, or in a particular part of it.
“Washington’s career as a soldier”
Career (noun)
speed
Career (noun)
A jouster’s path during a joust.
Career (noun)
A short gallop of a horse. 16th-18th c.
Career (noun)
The flight of a hawk.
Career (noun)
A racecourse; the ground run over.
Career (verb)
To move rapidly straight ahead, especially in an uncontrolled way.
“The car careered down the road, missed the curve, and went through a hedge.”
Profession (noun)
A promise or vow made on entering a religious order.
“She died only a few years after her profession.”
Profession (noun)
A declaration of belief, faith or of one’s opinion.
“Despite his continued professions of innocence, the court eventually sentenced him to five years.”
Profession (noun)
An occupation, trade, craft, or activity in which one has a professed expertise in a particular area; a job, especially one requiring a high level of skill or training.
“My father was a barrister by profession.”
Profession (noun)
The practitioners of such an occupation collectively.
“His conduct is against the established practices of the legal profession.”
Career (noun)
an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress
“he seemed destined for a career as an engineer like his father”
Career (noun)
the time spent by a person in a career
“the end of a distinguished career in the Royal Navy”
Career (noun)
the progress through history of an institution, organization, etc.
“the court has had a chequered career”
Career (noun)
working permanently in or committed to a particular profession
“a career diplomat”
Career (noun)
(of a woman) interested in pursuing a profession rather than devoting all her time to childcare and housekeeping
“a driven career woman”
Career (verb)
move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way
“the coach careered across the road and went through a hedge”