The paper demonstrates cognitive potentialities of neo-Weberian approach to studying professional groups as exemplified by the social work specialists. The data of inter-regional survey serve to illustrate specifics of economic, power and cultural component parts of professions’ status in their interrelation. The study has shown that the model of social work is characterized by a nothigh economic resource and insufficient prestige, by marked independence of employees and a limited sphere of their influence, by dominant departmental regulatory mechanisms, and informal mechanisms. Appeals to legal norms of professional context permitted to conclude that practical competences outweigh analytic and administrative competences with a majority of specialists; however, a considerable share of them possess experiences in social structural work.