You are a professional if you are being paid to do it.
You are aspiring if you are not being paid, but want to be.
Neither of those conditions implies expertise.
A hobbyist can be extremely knowledgable and never desire renumeration for their efforts.
Someone whom is wholly ignorant on a topic can expound in absolute terms while drawing a paycheck.
Sadly, in many cases you must know a lot about the topic at hand before it's obvious which is which.
The word most often misused is "amateur".
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't mean "incompetent", it means "lover of".
Someone who is an "amateur" does something for the love of it, not because they expect remuneration.
Whether they are any good at it is another issue altogether...