Are KJ's Professional?

[kilith]

Originally Posted by bryant

Exactly, so the response to the poll can really be only one. ""Some are and some not"", as the case in any occupation or job in this world. There are serious ones and there are "not so" serious ones.

However, my initial posts only referred to "whether the occupation in general was considered to be a professional one" by the typically understood definition of a "professional occupation", regarding rights, liabilities, licensure, qualifications, malpractice and good practice, etc. That is why I responded "No", in the poll.

It did not mean that I act "unprofessional "when I KJ,
or that anyone on here does. But put simply, it is not a professionally recognized occupation and therefore we have little protection from "impersonators", and also have little liability to worry about either.

I carry liability insurance and reason being if someone gets hurt on your equipment you are liable to be sued because of their injuries. We are also not talking about the actions of the KJ. We are talking about if they are a professional "as in this is what they do and the do it with poise and respect" Just like a Doctor. Not all doctors are professional and nowdays they are just people that write out a piece of paper. They take very little time with paticents nowdays.

I consider myself to be a professional KJ/DJ because I work to be the best. I am always up there doing my job tweeking volumes and peeks to make every person sound the best they can. I try to keep the show going til the end of the night. I give each and every singer the same respect and same attention.

It does not matter in this world if you have a degree or not anymore. It based on experience. Someone out of college even if they were in there for 10 years studying computers for example would not get a job right out of college. Everyone looks for 5 to 10 years hands on experience before they will hire someone fresh out of college. Even if that fresh kid out of college has more knowledge in the new technology or not.

People for weddings look for someone with 5-20 years experience before they will take the first $100.00 Ipod DJ. They rather play $500-$1500 for a professional DJ before a nobody.

Bars are a different story. They will pay for the first non-professional KJ running on a home karaoke system for $50.00-$100.00/night over a professional KJ who has all band equipment, great song selection, killer sound, and all the other flashy stuff who might charge $200.00-$300.00 a night. (this is in my area of working as in the Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa region)

They are the bars who do not have anyone in them. Try it once go to a ton of shows, check them out on quality and crowd. You will know who is better by the 10 people sitting in the bar or the 50+ persons crowd. You will know who is the professional KJ and who is the amatur KJ.

The word "Professional" does not just stick to a piece of paper you get from a college. I can call myself a professional Network Support Technician then however I am not. That little piece of paper I got from college means nothing in the world with out experience.

It is infact the college system that changed the word "professional" to what it is now. Back in the middle ages they had the system of the master and the apprentice. The master was the professional. Did he go to school for this? No he has many many years of experience to work for his title.

Unions, construction workers, plumbers, carpenters and so on. Not many of them ever went to school. They started as a 15 year old kid doing the crap jobs and now 10 years down the road they are the ones building the houses we live in now. They never went to school to become a professional they had 10+ years experience. This is why the word professional is not the word you are talking about. You are being to spacific on the word to only a person who went to school to learn stuff to get a piece of paper that can be burned in a fire. These people who have years of experience have something far greater then that and that is experience and reputation. A good or bad DJ/KJ will be talked about and word of mouth spreds much faster then a piece of paper that is in your hands or on your wall. A bad DJ will not get jobs and will be branded on forums and by word of mouth. A good DJ will have jobs booked years in advance. So yes some brides can be BURTAL to DJ's and that DJ would never see a job again unless someone would take the chance. There is some protection out there. Heck me showing my liability insurance gets me jobs in many bars because they have a little more peace of mind that they are hiring someone who is professional.

Also not even your so called professionals have protection against "impersonators" just because you have a degree like I stated above does not make you a professional. You pick the wrong doctor who takes chances on peoples lives insted of this other doctor who wants a little more money and then the bad doctor kills someone taking a risk that was not needed.... Or you get a police officer who has a bad rep and has been fired in other cities for drug use, yet you take him over another police officer who wants more money and that cop makes a mistake and gets someone killed. Really there are two professions by your terms and there is no protection. People are still going to spend less money to save money.