Professionalism in the civil service is an overarching value that determines how its activities will be carried out. It encompasses all other values that guide the public service such as loyalty, neutrality, transparency, diligence, punctuality, effectiveness, impartiality, and other values that may be specific to a given country. The rationale behind professionalism is that public servants should be neutral, impartial, fair, and competent and serve the public interest in carrying out their duties. They should be top people who are fairly compensated and adequately trained to perform their work. Among others, historical and ideological realities; lack of real recruitment procedures and conditions ; Competition from private sector and others which resulted in limited stock of qualified people in specialized areas specific to the public sector; absence of or abuse of objective and uniform standard of appraisal and results-based reward system; limited awareness and practical skills among some leaders, managers and team leaders to support their subordinates in their professional development; weak linkage of human resource development activities with the strategy and inadequate budget allocation to human resource development; and negative attitude and resistance to change among civil servants and even sometimes the middle and top level leaders are found to be the challenges in creating professional public service. The following recommendations are also recommended. Refining and implementing comprehensive merit system is the basis for civil service professionalism. Improving the performance management system is critical in today’s Ethiopian Civil Service in order to align individual, team and organizational performance. The rules of advancement and promotion for career development must provide an incentive to public servants to obtain the best results both qualitatively and quantitatively. Competitive payment is very vital element for the development of professionalism, since public servants who receive adequate remuneration feel secure in their jobs and therefore are better motivated. Public servants have always been expected to be neutral and to treat all citizens impartially and equitably in accordance with the laws and regulations in force.