Stupid craigslist housing question

[Lama Pacos]

Most shared apartments ask that the potential roommate be a "student or professional". Other than jobless, what the heck doesn't fall under one of those categories?

[Alice The Goon]

A professional is someone with a college degree, so lots and lots of people fall between the two.

[taterbug3918]

Most shared apartments ask that the potential roommate be a "student or professional". Other than jobless, what the heck doesn't fall under one of those categories?

Maybe "professional" means they want the roommate to be more than just employed, but to have a *career.* Something that required higher education and pays well, a job that they will have for a while, or at least plan on staying with. I'm guessing people who are looking for "professional" roommates don't want a part-time barista or a supermarket cashier.

Sounds kind of snobbish, but it could be a way to weed out people who might not always be able to cover their share of the rent.

[friedo]

A professional is someone with a college degree

Says who?

A professional is someone with a profession. If you're looking for "students or professionals" it means you don't want starving artists or trust-fund hipsters.

[USCDiver]

Says who?

A professional is someone with a profession. If you're looking for "students or professionals" it means you don't want starving artists or trust-fund hipsters.


Where did you get your definition? And how do you define 'profession'?

[SpoilerVirgin]

Might be using the definition of profession (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/profession) with which I'm most familiar: "An occupation, such as law, medicine, or engineering, that requires considerable training and specialized study."

I have a good job in communications, but in my family of doctors and lawyers I am considered a non-professional.

[friedo]

I have a good job in communications, but in my family of doctors and lawyers I am considered a non-professional.

This concept is completely alien to me, and I have lawyers and doctors in my family as well.

A "professional" is anybody who works a skilled job. Professional lawyer, professional nurse, professional architect, professional plumber, professional movie star, etc. OK, maybe the last one doesn't really count as "skilled."

[Alice The Goon]

Says who?

A professional is someone with a profession. If you're looking for "students or professionals" it means you don't want starving artists or trust-fund hipsters.


Sorry, but the definition of professional is: those employed in one of the learned professions, which, by definition require extensive schooling. It specifically means you have a degree.

ETA: Just search for it. Ever since my teenager installed Linux my links don't work. I want my Vista back.

[Sleeps With Butterflies]

Sorry, but the definition of professional is: those employed in one of the learned professions, which, by definition require extensive schooling. It specifically means you have a degree.

ETA: Just search for it. Ever since my teenager installed Linux my links don't work. I want my Vista back.

I disagree. There are many professions that don't require higher education. A plumber makes more than I do, and I doubt he went to school as long as I did. But, thankfully, he's willing to do the job.

[Alice The Goon]

I disagree. There are many professions that don't require higher education. A plumber makes more than I do, and I doubt he went to school as long as I did. But, thankfully, he's willing to do the job.


Well, that may be your opinion, but a definition is not a matter of opinion, but fact.

[whatami]

Well, that may be your opinion, but a definition is not a matter of opinion, but fact.

Right, so all those Craigslist people are looking for Doctors, Lawyers, or Engineers only.... :dubious:

[Sleeps With Butterflies]

Well, that may be your opinion, but a definition is not a matter of opinion, but fact.

Oh drop the attitude, a definition can vary from place to place. I'm glad you found one to match your earlier opinion.

Dictionary.com: a person who belongs to one of the professions, esp. one of the learned professions; a person who is expert at his or her work;


American Heritage Dictionary: Engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood or as a career; A skilled practitioner; an expert.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary: Of or pertaining to a profession, or calling; conforming to the rules or standards of a profession; following a profession; as, professional knowledge; professional conduct


We could go back and forth with our "facts," but I think you can see there are different "facts" based on the dictionary you use.

[Alice The Goon]

Right, so all those Craigslist people are looking for Doctors, Lawyers, or Engineers only.... :dubious:

What? Dude, what I am saying is that the definition of professional is someone who has a degree. That is what is meant when someone refers to a "professional". It always has been. What profession someone desires of a roommate found on Craigslist is beside the point.

[Alice The Goon]

Yeah, I give up. Going to bed now.

[Pork Rind]

I've always understood the term not only to refer to a job requiring a degree, but also some type of certification. Something test based, I supposed. Like a doctor, lawyer, engineer or architect.

FWIW, the built-in dictionary in OS X agrees.

1 a paid occupation, esp. one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification

[Campion]

Alice's definition of professional is the traditional one (note that the definitions given by Sleeps are a bit tautological -- a professional is one engaged in a profession; that begs the question as to what the professions are and Alice has identifed the traditional professions. A police officer, for example, is not a professional (no matter how well trained she is); instead, a police office is a blue collar worker, while doctors, lawyers, engineers are professionals.) And there's certainly nothing wrong with not being a professional, as that term traditionally was used. In my family, in fact, there was (and is) a lot more cheering over my sister's (non-professional) career choice than mine.

But I suspect that craigslist posters are using "professional" as a euphemism for "gainfully employed in a career, not a McJob."

[twickster]

Just to chime in that my reading would be professional = white collar.

[USCDiver]

I disagree. There are many professions that don't require higher education. A plumber makes more than I do, and I doubt he went to school as long as I did. But, thankfully, he's willing to do the job.

A plumber would be considered a 'skilled laboror' or 'tradesman'. He may be a master of his trade, but not a professional...in the strictest sense of the word 'profession'. Not that everyone is using that definition.

[Annie-Xmas]

Just to further muddy the waters, in some fields, an amateur does not get paid, but a professional does.

[Mahna Mahna]

I agree the word "professional" has lots of different meanings, but in the context of a classified ad "professional" is almost always code for "please have a steady full-time job that provides you with legal income". This would exclude anyone with a part-time minimum wage job, small-time dope dealing trustafarians or the typical actor-slash-busboy roommate (think Joey from friends).

This is the same code that lets you know that "airy" or "light-filled" usually means "has a window" and "spacious" usually means "enough room for you and your stuff, but not at the same time" and "open concept" means "the only enclosed space, if you're lucky, is the bathroom".

Oh, and there was the one time that "en suite bathroom" was a bedroom in the basement that had a door to the utility/furnace room, which happened to have a very scary looking shower stall in it (the house was owned by a self-declared "handyman" whose idea of acceptable lawn ornamentation was a half-disassembled dishwasher, so this was par for the course).

[Sigmagirl]

Other than jobless, what the heck doesn't fall under one of those categories?

There are categories of "jobless" that the advertiser is probably illegally discriminating against, under the local Fair Housing guidelines:

Retiree.
Person who can't work because of a physical or mental disability.
Person receiving Social Security after the death of a spouse.
Person who lives on his or her alimony or other support payments.
Person who hit the lottery/has a trust fund/won a lawsuit and is living off the income.

I see that the OP is in Massachusetts, but I can tell you that here in Ohio the Fair Housing people would be all over that ad like hair on a gorilla. They earn their salaries by suing people. I realize that the example is a person looking for a roommate, not a tenant, but you can just try to convince Fair Housing of that.

When I was working at our local newspaper, we had an ad placed by a man who was looking for a roommate. There was no reference to sex, race, religion, or any other warning sign in the ad; yet an interested person who called was told he "wasn't looking for black chicks." The woman called Fair Housing, who sent out a young black woman as a tester. When she was rejected, they filed suit. The newspaper was not named in the suit because the ad was 'clean," but believe me, they would not have hesitated to include us.

The rule is, you can ask the applicant to demonstrate that he or she can afford the rent, but you cannot ask how he or she comes about the money (as long as it's legal). If you're asking $500 a month, and the person can give you $500 a month in legal money, his/her being a "student" or a "professional" or a retiree or a welfare mom is none of your business, in the spirit of the law.

That's why so many people use word-of-mouth and college newspapers to find roommates, because they are not policed as often as print publications. Craigslist is beginning to be mined for Fair Housing lawsuits; they won one recently on the premise that "Craigslist is not a publisher," but the individual advertisers still are liable.

Cite: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/15/appeals-court-affirms-dismissal

Our newspaper would not accept a housing ad that said "student" or "professional," either from a landlord or a prospective roommate. Too much trouble and nobody wants to go to those Fair Housing "training sessions," at which the director rants at you for four hours while charging you $50,000. (Then you're trained.)