What skills and competencies must professionals in social work possess, what practical issues do these relate to, and what role does education play? The study presented here empirically investigates these and other questions. Through the analysis of various data sources, it examines whether the practice of social work requires competencies that must be situated at the level of habitus, which competencies these are, and whether and how education contributes to the development of a professional habitus in this sense. The findings lead to the concept of a professional habitus in social work, against which the educational trajectories of a group of students are reconstructed. This concept and other foundations of professional action are proposed as the core of a professional ideal in social work. Recommendations for education are also formulated. The study employs a case reconstruction approach and applies the methods of objective hermeneutics. By using not only interview transcripts but also primary data from educational practice for the reconstruction of educational trajectories, this study takes a methodologically innovative approach.