Email Signature Question

When you send emails to recruiters or any other prospective employer, do you create an email signature listing your education and certifications?

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

pevangel

No, not even on my work e-mail signature. I'm assuming you are sending your resume to recruiters and prospective employers, so I don't really get what you would gain from putting your certs and education on your signature.

srabiee

I've seen people with masters degrees include that after their name, for example: John Smith, MBA

I don't see a problem with including your masters degree or doctorate in your sig in that manner. Otherwise, I would refrain from the practice.

robS

Doctorate, yes.

Anything less than that and it reminds me of a Red Dwarf episode where Rimmer had B.Sc after his name and all it stood for was Bronze Swimming Certificate.

MrAgent

I've seen people put their certs in their signature, and occasionally their degrees. I look at it as bragging.
It would also look pretty silly if I put all my certs in my signature. Most times my signature would take more room than the body of the message.

aspiringsoul

I agree, unless you have a professional or Graduate degree, then it's not really a good practice. I would just list your certifications and degrees on your linkedin profile and your resume. There are a few of my co-workers that have their certifications listed in their signatures (I used to with my previous employer, but most people had no idea what it meant, nor did they care).

You might consider listing certifications and your degree on a business card though...

N2IT

To answer your question I think it looks cheesy, just my opinion.

The real world answer, I wouldn't but any thought into it. Focus on items that will provide value.

the_Grinch

I agree, I find it to be cheesy and pompous. I will admit I'm a bit jaded due to working with doctors and nurses while at an MSP. The more initials in their signature the harder they were to deal with. Nurse especially love it for some reason and to the untrained eye it would appear to be some grand thing. But my sister is a nurse so I have some background on what it all means:

RN, ASN, BSN, MSN really? RN basically covers it, anything else is fluff. ASN - Associates in Nursing (ok you completed enough extra stuff for a degree) BSN - Bachelors in Nursing (typically you're adding a couple research like courses, but aren't getting any new skills you didn't already have or had been trained for) MSN - Masters in Nursing (typically this is a management or nurse educator level cred)

Unless you are a Nurse Practitioner I don't really need to know every step of education you took.

BradleyHU

lol i guess, i'm one of those cheesy ones then. I've had my signature include my alma mater & degree for so long, i barely even remember its there. Hasn't had any ill effect in all these years...

Tom Servo

I only include certificates in my email signature if it is commonly done by others on my team. Even then, I limit it to 3 at most, otherwise I feel it looks silly/very much bragging. I work for a large org with everything in silos, so tossing CISSP or other certs on can sometimes convince people I'm not clueless about security, and have at least thought things out.

kohr-ah

Nope.

Not unless it is a master's degree or I would even say if your a network engineer, for example, CCIE after would be okay.

-hype

I know some consultants are required to put all their certs in their signature. Because essentially, the company is selling you.