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

[Anonymous]

I realize that this is way too late for OP, but, in general, I'm not a fan of email signatures for internal use. If you use one, it really just needs your title and, perhaps, your location. Never use more than four lines in a signature and make sure that it is preceded by the standard signature delimiter (-- ("dash dash space")) on its own line (which does not count as one of the four). Anything else looks clueless.

Putting degrees or certifications in one's email signature might make sense for an outside consultant (when earning your customer's trust is important), but comes off as unnecessary and pretentious for anyone else. Yes, of course you have the necessary education and certifications to do your job--otherwise, you would not have that job. Possible exception: in cases where there are legal requirements, it might make some sense. If you are a CPA doing CPA work, I could see putting CPA in one's signature.

For business cards, I have no problem with it, if it is relevant to the job.

For a resume, put it under "Education" or "Certifications."

All of that said, my inclination is to say that many of us have fairly low opinions of personnel departments, and that it might not be such a good thing for OP to be promoting what appears to be (from five minutes' worth of Googling) a certification that promotes more-or-less the status quo for that profession. My own experience has been that most people in that business are more interested in box-checking and making their jobs as easy as possible, rather than actually contributing to the improvment of the organization. This may be totally unfair, and OP may be doing a great job, but that is not the message that I would be taking from someone who promoted such a certification. (And I apologize if that is not what the certification in question actually means...the online descriptions of what it actually is supposed to indicate are rather vague.)

[Anonymous]

I don’t know what an SPHR is. If the HR people in my organization email me with that behind their name, it doesn’t impress me. Who are you trying to get to take you more seriously? Is there a different way to let them know you got this degree?

[Anonymous]

I say list it, this is not a degree as people keep commenting on. I don't think they understand how hard this is to achieve and that it is not a one and done test that you can claim forever. This is a big deal in the HR field and you need to re-certify, unlike the degree which is done and over and never goes away. I just got mine and will add the letters, although I would not add my degrees.

[Anonymous]

Late to the game for a response but the title of this message speaks volumes about the lack of understanding "letters after your name" isn't what those are called. They are credentials and in some industries they are important and others maybe not so much.

I work in government healthcare and it is important in my agency to know the difference between communicating with an MD, PhD, NP, CRNA, etc. The only people in my agency that would say t doesn't matter are the HR people that don't really have an understanding of healthcare and the ones that don't have degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Late to the game for a response but the title of this message speaks volumes about the lack of understanding "letters after your name" isn't what those are called. They are credentials and in some industries they are important and others maybe not so much.

I work in government healthcare and it is important in my agency to know the difference between communicating with an MD, PhD, NP, CRNA, etc. The only people in my agency that would say t doesn't matter are the HR people that don't really have an understanding of healthcare and the ones that don't have degrees.

The person's title or maybe degree/license matters. 32 acronyms behind their name don't matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yes, we have several with this and also huge pictures of themselves in the signature too. I find them to be infuriating. I got SO sick of one of them (her giant face alone was a 5MB file) that I managed to talk a contact in IT into disabling signatures for her.

[Anonymous]

You list terminal degrees in your field:

M.F.A.
Ph.D.
M.B.A.
M.P.A.

Ed.D. (indicates not a research degree)

I wouldn't consider MS or MA or ME.d. to be terminal degrees. People list them behind their names all the time.

List professional degrees:

J.D.
M.D.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You list terminal degrees in your field:

M.F.A.
Ph.D.
M.B.A.
M.P.A.

Ed.D. (indicates not a research degree)

I wouldn't consider MS or MA or ME.d. to be terminal degrees. People list them behind their names all the time.

List professional degrees:

J.D.
M.D.

Do not list JD. This is not a thing that practicing lawyers do.

[Anonymous]

In my organization, the people in HR have all these letters after their name.

I work with a ton of lawyers and PhD holders.....and they never use all these initials in their signatures or business cards.

Take from that what you will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cool IT Busines Guy, PHD IT, Ceritified Dive Instructor, PHD in Love

PhD at DeVry University in holistic massage

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cool IT Busines Guy, PHD IT, Ceritified Dive Instructor, PHD in Love

PhD at DeVry University in holistic massage

Doctorate in NuRu's

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You list terminal degrees in your field:

M.F.A.
Ph.D.
M.B.A.
M.P.A.

Ed.D. (indicates not a research degree)

I wouldn't consider MS or MA or ME.d. to be terminal degrees. People list them behind their names all the time.

List professional degrees:

J.D.
M.D.

Do not list JD. This is not a thing that practicing lawyers do.

+1

I have a JD. I have a PhD. I do not list these things in my signature. If I have to tell you I have a law degree, I'm probably doing a really bad job of being a lawyer. If I have to tell you I have a PhD, I'm probably doing really bad research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at a U.S. government agency renowned for having some of the smartest and best credentialed people in all of government.

Guess who puts the initials after their name in emails?

Here's a hint: it's not the JDs, PhDs, or MSs from Ivy League schools doing all the heavy lifting policy work, testifying in front of Congress, or traveling the world to present their research or negotiate on behalf of the U.S. government.

It's all the folks in HR and admins with a zillion acronyms.

Ha. Totally believe it.

Yep. I just had an interaction last week with someone from HR, and sure enough she had her letter behind her name. She's a GS-11 Management and Program Analyst, which is a dime a dozen position at my agency, lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Email signature - no.
Business card - the degrees that are directly linked to what you do and might seem useful to people you are dealing with absolutely.

I can't get over my uncle listing his PhD EVERYWHERE. Even when my grandma died and we were all listed in the newspaper article thingy (don't know the english word sorry) he insisted on listing his PhD. He is VERY insecure, very show-off, very slimy so yeah...that's what I connect with people who list degrees in anything that is not connected directly to their work life.

Lol, my dad did this in my moms obituary too. Even in her death he found a way to make it about him...

Yikes-- do we have the same dad? I love my dad dearly, but I was so irritated at him for listing his credentials (and school!) in my mom's obit. I guess he wants his flowers while he's alive.

[Anonymous]

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