professional career

[Isotope]

Hello!

I've to check a text for stylistic mistakes and I'm unsure whether this sentence is a correct idiomatic sentence in English:

"The book covers the whole of his professional career as a singer."

The phrase "professional career" somehow bothered me because to me the words profession and career have the same meaning. To me, "professional" only implies that your earn money from something which is the case if you make a career out of something.

So what is the difference between a career and a professional career?

Thanks for your help!

[5jj]

I've to check a text for stylistic mistakes and I'm unsure whether this sentence is a correct idiomatic sentence in English:

"The book covers the whole of his professional career as a singer."

The phrase "professional career" somehow bothered me because to me the words profession and career have the same meaning. To me, "professional" only implies that your earn money from something which is the case if you make a career out of something.

It is possible to have what could reasonably termed a career as an amateur. This used to be common in sports such as athletics, boxing, tennis,rugby union, golf, cricket, etc; amateur dramatics, singing and many other activities.

Your professional singer may well have spent several years singing unpaid and/or singing for pocket money in his free time while having a full-time job in another area, before he finally began a full-time, professional career.

[Isotope]

Thanks for your help!

So if you use the term career it doesn't necessarily mean that you earn money from doing something and that you might as well just do it as an hobby?

Did I get that right?

[5jj]

So if you use the term career it doesn't necessarily mean that you earn money from doing something and that you might as well just do it as an hobby?

Did I get that right?

I feel that an amateur career is more than a hobby, but that is perhaps hair-splitting. Without further context, we would usually understand 'career' to involve paid work, but in the right context, it does not have to do so.