I recently watched an amazing video on this topic on YouTube by Uncle Bob. Most of the points made complete sense. Although this video was addressed for developers, it is quite relevant for testers too. We need professionals (and professionalism) in our field in order to be taken seriously as a craftsman.
Although, most of us believe that we are software professionals, however not all stand up to the expectations of a professional.
These are some of the expectations from the software professionals which if fulfilled can help anyone stand out from the average crowd.
Here is my mindmap summarizing many such expectations from this talk by Uncle Bob:
Here is the web version of the same: https://www.xmind.net/m/Zzzp9N
Thank you!