"Letters after your name". . .Question for HR Professionals

[Anonymous]

I recently earned my SPHR, and have been advised to list this after my name on my email signature and business card.

I also hold a M.S. and a M.Ed. I have never listed those, but should I? Does it seem obnoxious? It would be,

Jane Doe, SPHR, M.S., M.Ed

Thanks for any feedback or opinions.

[Anonymous]

My co-worker, who is not in HR, is also curious about this. Her take is that people don't include degrees unless they are PhD

[Anonymous]

As a non-HR professinal (& thereby ignoring your post title ) I'd say leave it off. It's not going ot be a meaningful distinction to those outside the field, who I assume is the majority of who you'd be communicating with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a non-HR professinal (& thereby ignoring your post title ) I'd say leave it off. It's not going ot be a meaningful distinction to those outside the field, who I assume is the majority of who you'd be communicating with?

Leave off all of it? (And I didn't mean to exclude any others who had opinions. . . )

[Anonymous]

I don't know what SPHR stands for. But, if this information is useful and necessary for the people that you interact with professionally then you should use it. I am assuming that you never listed your Master's degrees because that information is not that helpful since it is conveyed as a given of your job title. If SPHR stands for some kind of special certification that it would be helpful to know you have within this field then use it.

For example, if I am looking for a therapist, I care that the person is a LCSW because it impacts whether or not the person takes insurance, so this is useful information.

I agree that if you are listing your SPHR, go ahead and list your Master's degrees in this context.

There will be people who come on here and tell you not to list anything because it is "obnoxious" and that would be true if you were talking about giving this information out at a playground or a church supper. But, for professional interactions where people understand what the letters convey in terms of liscensing, then you should use them.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. The SPHR is pretty important in HR. (Only 48% of people who sat for the exam passed it last year.) It would definitely be recognized by people in the field.

I never listed by masters degrees because, well, I don't really know why.

[Anonymous]

I work in HR, though not a SPHR. My cowrokers who are use it in their email signature & on business cards because it is directly applicable to their professional positions. One has an MS in an unrelated field so she chooses not to use that.

[Anonymous]

Not an HR professional so forgive me for butting in, but personally I find it annoying and tiring when people list their degrees after their name in email signature lines. I have two advance degrees and save listing them on my resume. I'm an attorney. My business card says so but I don't list "JD" or other degrees after my name. I have definitely noticed that only the most insecure and/or annoying people add this or "esquire" or such to their email signatures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not an HR professional so forgive me for butting in, but personally I find it annoying and tiring when people list their degrees after their name in email signature lines. I have two advance degrees and save listing them on my resume. I'm an attorney. My business card says so but I don't list "JD" or other degrees after my name. I have definitely noticed that only the most insecure and/or annoying people add this or "esquire" or such to their email signatures.

Ditto.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not an HR professional so forgive me for butting in, but personally I find it annoying and tiring when people list their degrees after their name in email signature lines. I have two advance degrees and save listing them on my resume. I'm an attorney. My business card says so but I don't list "JD" or other degrees after my name. I have definitely noticed that only the most insecure and/or annoying people add this or "esquire" or such to their email signatures.

Ditto.

Another ditto (with a JD and a PhD)

[Anonymous]

whats really annoying is when the signature has 20 lines of CERTS and information. Usually it is from people that don't have a degree and try to make up for it.

[Anonymous]

Cool IT Busines Guy, PHD IT, Ceritified Dive Instructor, PHD in Love

[Anonymous]

Both my business card & my email sig list my ph.d., and our website staff page lists ph.ds. It's a marketing thing--my employer wants potential clients to know we have a lot of ph.d.s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently earned my SPHR, and have been advised to list this after my name on my email signature and business card.

I also hold a M.S. and a M.Ed. I have never listed those, but should I? Does it seem obnoxious? It would be,

Jane Doe, SPHR, M.S., M.Ed

Thanks for any feedback or opinions.

Listing degrees on e-mail signatures and business cards is just tacky. A possible exception can be made for terminal degrees.

Presumably you have credentials enough to hold the position you have, so why the need to continually thrust them front and center? For one thing, a lot of people (Bill Cosby comes to mind) trumpet honorary degrees. You don't want to be confused with this nonsense.

[Anonymous]

HR Professional here. I list GPHR after my name and everyone that I know in HR also lists these (PHR, SPHR, GPHR). I think adding the rest is a bit much. It is relevant to the field and does mean something to those in the profession. Since things are constantly changing it helps to know that you are keeping up with things as it's required to re-cert. Most organizations now require that you have some sort of certification.