Reply With QuoteI notice the same with people who have attained a Seagoing Master's Certificate.
Whether or not they have sailed as Master or not - they will use the prefix "Captain" thereafter.
I very rarely come across someone at work who puts "letters" at the end of their name/ signature. lately however, I have this one guy who has felt the need to put 6 groups of letters after his name. Just something about it that makes me instantly think the person is a bell end. Is this fair of me?
So I ask why do you include letters at the end of you name? is this the done thing these days or was this an old school pre social media day thing to kind of paint a picture of yourself in the new age of the world wide web.
I notice the same with people who have attained a Seagoing Master's Certificate.
Whether or not they have sailed as Master or not - they will use the prefix "Captain" thereafter.
My pet hate is those who add titles to their Twitter handles; especially those who get honours from the Queen. I knew a teacher once who signed his lesson observation forms of other staff with his name followed by OBE.
Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
Pure narcissism.
Think it's common in certain industries/roles, but certainly not in mine (design engineer). Mine are the pretty bog standard unimpressive BEng (Hons) and i did have MIMechE for a while, but i stopped paying them. I've never felt the need or desire to use them and i've not seen them used by any Engineer in any of my 5 jobs.
I remember early in my first job, we had an office poll whether to include them or not on our new business cards, office was split about 50/50, but then our sales director said no on behalf of the whole business as 'it could upset/belittle customers'. He didn't have a degree.
To be honest, when nowadays getting 5 A* A levels and a degree is the norm rather than the exception, i think anyone using anything less than a PhD or similar is a bit naff
Yes it is absolutely fair to think that and first impressions are often, but not always, correct!
When I worked in practice a chap had BA MA ACA on his business cards, only a few letters shorter than his full name.
You see it a lot in the military. In formal defence writing, I'm pretty sure you are meant to include the post-nominals after your name at the top of the letter. But writing a formal letter is pretty rare. Anyone who does it in any other setting is definitely getting judged by me. It's akin to Michael Scott from US office having a certificate of authenticity for his seiko watch on the wall.
My favorite was, i think, from Red Dwarf, maybe the books rather than TV program, Rimmer used BSc (Bronze Swimming Certificate)
My company expects us to use them on company emails or when signing off any correspondence... I would never use them personally or on any social media, I don't see the point in them myself, you pay for the majority!!!!
I am one of those people with lots of post nominals (5) I also have a really long name, so if I put them on my business card it would need to be A4 size
To be fair I am a bell end!
To be honest, I think that they can be helpful if used in "work" context, where you may be wondering just how qualified an individual is, especially if they are issuing instructions or giving technical advice.
Away from the work arena, I doubt I could resist the temptation to add them in the extremely unlikely event that I ever sprout some.
Certain of my previous employers had a requirement that they were included in letters and email - I guess they paid for some of their staff to attain them, so they wanted it shown.
In some other industries it’s just normal. I like to know that the people I’m dealing with are qualified in the areas they are working, or might assume they are in training.
As long as they let me know whether they wish to be called he or she, then we are all good.
Thank you
Shirley Not
(He/him)
It's just a matter of time...
I have more letters after my name than in my name (and I have a relatively long name, middle name included).
My wife has **way** more than I do. Nerdette.
In our industry it's quite normal to use them; more so in her niche and less so in mine.
I would never use them when communicating with someone outside of my industry. They wouldn't mean much to anyone else anyway; just random bunches of letters, but within our own industry they're a very clear indicator of 'rank' in a sense, so you just know who you're dealing with and what level they are at, so for the most part, there's really no egotism involved - it's just a helpful indicator of who you're dealing with. At least, I have never felt it strange to see someone's post nominals on their letter head / email / signature.
But occasionally, I see folks who use them even amongst local colleagues, and that does come across as a bit naff.
Ah the good old IMechE - is still several hundred quid a year and a monthly mag for your money?Originally Posted by Brighty
I had a run in with an ex customer who had the following on his business card.
MSc MSc (FP&BM) CMgr FPFS CFPCM FCMI FinstLM FIDM MISM CeRGI
CeLTM CeRER Comb Cert Couns FCIM Adv CeMAP CeRCC CSP FIC CeRCH
Chartered Marketer
Chartered Financial Planner
Certified Financial Planner
Chartered FLIBF
Chartered Wealth Manager
Chartered FCSI
Chartered Manager
And yes, he’s a complete bell end!
Edit: I have BSc(Hons) but never use it.
I think it depends - as mentioned above some employers stipulate this requirement; I used to work for a large corporate IT company that did a lot of (outsourcing) work for the UK government. One of the contract's requirements was that a certain number/percentage of staff deployed had a specific qualifications in their specialisms i.e. Project Managers - PMP Certified etc. So we were all made to put our various qualifications on our email sigs. If there was no requirement, I wouldn't dream of it TBH.
Suffixes in general seem to be more important to our cousins across the Atlantic though - similar to how they have adopted "Jr" or "the Second" or "the Third" etc.
I know of a manager many moons ago who would not interview applicants for a job if they had letters after their name. He himself had a degree, chartered status and well educated. Id like to ask him now what his reasoning was behind this tactical approach to recruiting the next generation of engineers.
The names Bond, Basildon Bond, I have letters after my name. God bless Russ Abbott.
The wife has a PHD but never uses her Dr title, in fact she is rather embarrassed about it.
We once lived next door to an Army couple and she introduced herself as Mrs Major ...... then their surname
One of the best, was Officer Nick McDonald.
From 1963 until his death - he signed all correspondence:
"Officer Nick McDonald, Captor of Oswald - 11-22-63"
Guaranteeing more than the normal 15 minutes of fame
How odd!
Probably, i bailed at least 10yrs ago (probably more actually) and it was about £100 then and that was for unchartered AMIMechE status, it was lots more for full chartered CEng MIMeche, not that i got that far. It become obvious a few years into my career that no one in my industy(s) ever got chartered or cared about chartership, no jobs ever asked for it, so i stopped paying them
Last edited by Brighty; 4th January 2021 at 18:25.
Only in certain specific industries where is is common place / custom to do so ... but mostly I'd say it's either insecurity or pure show ... neither is good ...
I never use mine ...
She didn't do the PHD for the right to call herself Dr.
She has never used it.
I'm sure she didn't do it for that reason, but why be 'embarassed' to use a title that was earned? It's why the title exists? What's embarassing about it?
I believe you only state the highest degree in a discipline, so potentially the BA and MA are different disciplines?
About ten years ago I worked with a headteacher much from the mould of trump.
He had a banging set of seemingly random letters after his name so I thoroughly googled each one. That activity shed very little light apart from one set which appeared to correspond to the federation of French naturists. Ergo, the vast majority at least was simply made up.
Using professional quals in external emails is fine as third parties or clients may be interested. There may even be a threshold which you have to have reached in order to work on some content. I'm thinking of Legal and Compliance here.
Using them in informal emails is just inexperience.
90% of the people who put letters after their name need a slap. Most people I've seen do it went to a bog standard uni and have a bog standard degree in nothing special.
Quite a number of people in my industry (pressure vessels & heavy process equipment design and maintenance) would be as follows; BEng CEng MIMechE.
Same as my colleagues really, its on my calling card thing (haven't used them in years) and its on the bottom of my emails but there's no way Id ever use those letters outside of more formal work correspondence.
I only use mine in my professional context as other colleagues and patients may well want to know the extent of my qualifications.
My wife does the same as she is a published academic with a PhD and is a Senior Lecturer at a university.
We both use the title Dr and never Mr or Mrs. We also are married but have different surnames.
I wonder whether the poster whose wife finds it uncomfortable using Dr took his surname and now uses Mrs instead?
Never used my BSc(Hons)/MSc or my FFA - whereas investment colleagues regularly list theirs (alongside their obligatory Director title). I guess character and industry driven.
I don't have vocational qualifications or accreditations, so have never bothered. It's more common in some fields and industries than others.
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
Never used any of mine either.
I did consider adding Esq. after my name, to appear an even greater bell end than I already am. Plus American might think that I am a lawyer... which is of course of no interest whatsoever.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
I recently had a customer say to me, in an email, “in case you’re wondering what the letters after my name mean it’s.....”
I replied I hadn’t noticed them before and would never have wondered even if I’d noticed.
Absolute pest he was, as you can imagine.
The best two I’ve seen recently are OLY for someone who has been an Olympian, and MUA - which took me ages to figure out
Qualifications - No, its just a course you have paid for or attended
Honours - Yes if you like
RIAC
I have a number of letters/qualifications I could put after my name.
I don't, except on extremely rare occasions where it might be warranted such as in the Guest Speakers list at a conference or symposium.
Other than that, it makes you look like a bit of a knob, and I am way past the point of needing to impress people with my academic qualifications.
So clever my foot fell off.
I use the Dr title at work (externally) as it confers a level of education with clients - as many are in academia.
I don’t use/mention other degrees - although all are in different disciplines.
I find it a bit of an irritation on LinkedIn entries when people have it in their name field.
...particularly the John Doe PhD, MBA combo.
z
I used mine after my name in my email address at work - that was in an academic setting. But did not use Dr (or anything else) outside of work).
One little anecdote from a colleague who lived in Cambridge... she was in a pub - a new drinker joined their table and at one point was asked what he did. He said he was a doctor. Another member of the (largely academic) group asked 'a doctor of what?'. 'I'm a GP' was the answer, to which the response was 'oh, not a proper doctor then'. Only in Cambridge!
After my title and names I just write international playboy.
Never used mine, it always seems a bit pretentious to me. A bit like having framed certificates on your office wall, that’s not for me either.
I remember a heated ‘ debate’ at work back in the 70’s, one of the participants used the phrase ‘you can’t talk to me like that, I’m Dr.....’. his significantly more junior adversary replied: ‘if you don’t shut your f****** face you’ll be needing one’ . One of them eventually left industry for a career in research and academia, eventually becoming a professor.
I dislike the whole post nominal thing - I used to work with somebody who had it on a sign on their office door!.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
B. H. (Calcutta) Failed.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Would you allow a GP to carry out surgery? Possibly.
Would you allow a surveyor to do a full structural if they weren't RICS? Possibly.
Would you ask GQ to meet you in Monaco wearing his Austin Powers outfit if he hadn't studied hard for his IP exams? Definitely not. Thankfully his skills are extraordinary.
Yeah, baby!
How about Bond...James Bond 007
I like knowing what others have done/achieved whether PhD, MSc etc. Qualifications represents hard work and dedication.
What is annoying is seeing nearly a full line of ‘qualifications’ which are paid memberships.
One qualification I saw was FD. Intrigued by this I googled it, foundation degree.
Prexelor PhD MSc LLB B&Q IKEA McD FFS
Yeah people mechanics came much later than proper Doctors ;-)
In my 40+ years of corporate/business experience in the U.S., it is common in some industries, mostly when it is important that the reader knows you are qualified for work you may perform for them, like J.D. (lawyer), CPA (accountant), M.D. (physician), CLU (insurance), etc. If the intent is to "qualify yourself" in a particular area that may be pertinent: yes. If the intent is to generally demonstrate how accomplished you are: fucktwit!
Wise move. Otherwise if somebody has a cardiac arrest on the airline flight that you are on you may be called on to resuscitate.
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