What is the job of an IT professional ?

everyone knows that an IT professional deals with designing softwares for huge co.s . but how long do they need these softwares . i wanted to know exactly what these guys do inside . and what is meant by consulting and solutions ?

An IT professional is anyone who works in the field of IT - it's not a job title. In fact, there are dozens of different professions within IT, from the guys and galls in call centers, to programmers, software engineers, database administrators, IT project managers, information analysts, consultants, and so forth. They all do very different things and the salaries for these different jobs range from minimum wage to astronomical.
A consultant is someone that a company brings in, usually for a specific project, because they have specialized knowledge. For example, a company could hire a consultant to make recommendations on what software to use for a specific task.
A solution is sort of a marketing term. What it means, is that you usually need software PLUS consulting, training, or written procedures to get a job done. Just the software isn't enough. The software with all the other stuff included, is called a solution. Big companies like IBM can sell you the software and all the other stuff you need too, so they say they sell solutions.

Translate human language and systems into codes that could be understood by the machines, ie, programming.

Senior management in IT are not different from regular managers, manging time and money. Junior staff does the programming.

It really depends what kind. IT Pros -- in my opinion -- usually fall into three broad categories: architects, programmers and administrators.

Architects are concerned with the big picture: they will analyze problems, review technologies, make recommendations, etc. They may do some programming and administration-oriented tasks, but they are more concerned with finiding the right answer to the problems of their employers and leave the implementation to programmers and administrators.

Programmers will analyze small, task-oriented problems, find the best solution and implement (program) them in the programming language that is best adapted to the task at hand... or, more likely, the programming language that is used by their current company. Senior programmers usually become team leaders, program managers for large projects with dozens -- or even hundred -- of programmers under them.

Administrators are the people who run the day-to-day operation of a network: its servers, workstations, networks, routers, etc. They also analyze problems, review technologies and so on and so forth, but they are more concerned with maintaining a functional network and making the network users can use all its resources for their work.

Of course, the names applied to these different categories may change, but this should give you a broad idea of the categories.