I hope this doesn't sound snarky - it isn't intended to - but the site in question looks worse than a WordPress template, design-school-freshman-quality stuff. I don't mean to be mean-spirited - this is just simply my impression of the design level.
But let's assume you totally dislike all of that, too - yeah, and? She got hired as a designer and didn't get fired since, which makes me believe her employer is happy with hiring her. It also does make her a professional in the sense of the word, like it or not.
I don't like the Wordpress theme either, but you act like she said she's a great designer because of it. Come on.
Just for the record, I work for startups, not large companies; it just happened that the startup I was at doing design work for was acquired by Oracle.
EDIT: Clarification.
So if the measure of being a "professional designer" is someone who is paid to do design work, I think this is fine advice. A designer gets better with practice and real world work. This seems like a good starting point.
Partly as a result of that, I'm thinking about moving into the design field. But for me that's with a somewhat formal background in color and fine art; not as difficult a transition I think.