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N2IT

Kinetic

True story.....

Several years back I was working with an MSP co locating with a fortune 500 company. We were handling a lot of their vendor management and infrastructure systems. At the time I was an operational manager over part of this effort. We had a MSP Christmas party and the head account manager over this client introduced me to his very first hire/placement. This gentleman was head over the PMO and actually managed full time employees as a consultant which is insanely rare, from what I have seen.

Anyway we got to talk and I expressed interest in getting hired on the PMO as an SAP PM. He said he would take a look at my credentials, then immediately burst out and asked if I had the PMP. I said no sir not at the time, he replied GOOD! Evidently he recently had hired several PM's to manage some implementation projects, relatively low level stuff and 4 out of the 6 PM's had their PMP. Only one was good he let the other 3 go within a few months. He said they were so hung up on documentation they never delivered on time.

Sorry for the long winded story but I believe it snaps right into what you were saying!

PMP's don't take this wrong it was only his view, but I still find it hiliarous these folks were terrible with the PMP.

beads

I'll include certs on the first iteration of an email and leave them off afterward so the recipient only sees once. Second rule is only to include if relevant to the conversation, that is about security. The HR benefits person or payroll person wouldn't know let alone care one iota about my CISSP or list of various other certifications after my name.

Generally at work my signature looks much like this once and once per discussion.

b/eads
Security Architect
Company Name
CISSP-ISSAP, HCISPP

N2IT

beads if sent to a certain audience I wouldn't see the cheese factor going up.

The help desk guy with the CISSP on his signature has cheese smeared on his hands and face.

beads

@N2IT

That's harsh but as I have pointed out ever so many times before; the ISC2 will accept almost anything these days so I wouldn't be shocked. That said it doesn't stop me from helping them find their place at the help desk.

Besides, those folks generally prefer glue to paste.

- b/eads

N2IT

b\eads I am just having a little fun. At the end of the day all I care about is how you treat people and can you deliver. Everything else means nothing lol

beads

@N2IT;

Agreed. Now, if you'll excuse me I have to order more paste for the folks on the helpdesk. Today there is more truth to that statement that I care to admit.

- b/eads

shaX 07

I want to throw in another scenario that I feel makes putting Certs in signatures very valuable...

Currently I work in a Systems Engineering role but focused primarily on systems relating to an electronic medical record (Epic). Epic is an enterprise EMR that has many 'Applications' within the system, meaning the OR has an application, the ED, Inpatient, Ambulatory, etc. Each of these applications has its own support team, and they each are required to obtain their own certifications for their application.

I feel it extremely helpful and valuable for folks in these roles to put their Application certification in their e-mail signatures. When we communicate with other teams/staff through e-mail, if it just says "Systems Analyst" that wouldn't tell me what application they work in. If it says "Certified OpTime" then I know they work on the OR Application. Pretty much every application analyst has the same title, yet they technically support different applications.

In addition, we often communicate with the support folks from Epic via e-mail, and not everyone knows everyone. It's very helpful for them to know who they're talking to, and what application that person is certified in/supports.

NOC-Ninja

I used to post it when I had a ccna and ccnp. I dont post any certs in my signature after getting ccie. Having a ccie spreads like a wildfire. Everyone knows you have it at work.

dou2ble

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

I used to post it when I had a ccna and ccnp. I dont post any certs in my signature after getting ccie. Having a ccie spreads like a wildfire. Everyone knows you have it at work.

This might not apply to you but what if you're consulting so it's not your immediate work place. How would they know you're a CCIE? When gathering information I like to know if I'm receiving it from a CCNA or CCIE. Same thing with CISSP or Sec +. I know the cert doesn't guarantee knowledge and experience, but normally it means more than not having it.

sbbrown333

I'm new here, but I just passed my first CompTIA certification, Healthcare IT. My boss wants me to add it to my signature but I do not think it would look right to have: FirstName LastName, Healthcare IT Technician. Any idea how to add this to my email signature without looking stupid? Thanks.

scaredoftests

At work, after my email signature, I have all my certifications listed. No logo.

psheehan5

@sbbrown333. I'm not sure why you think it will look stupid. You earned it and if your boss wants you to put it in your sig block, what's the big deal? I'm sure he/she has a reason for wanting you to put it in there. I'd even go as far as saying "Sure Boss, I'll put it in my sig block. Is there a standard format or how would you like to see it?"
Barring any further input from your boss, I might suggest it something like this:

John Smith
Healthcare IT Technician
SomeITCorp Inc.

or even:

John Smith
CompTIA Certified Healthcare IT Technician
SomeITCorp Inc.

bpenn

To piggyback on sbbrown333's post, I know many people are worried about putting acronym jumbles into their signature but the CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician is straightforward and easily understandable - without the alphabet soup. I think that is a fair cert to include in a signature line.

As for general use of certs in the signature line, I think it all depends where and who you work for. I work for a DoD contractor that deals with multiple government sites across the country. Most people work together and may never meet each other face to face so certs in the signature line are not uncommon at all. I dont personally do it (maybe when I get my CISSP endorsement) but I dont judge others that do, so long as they dont put the CompTIA trio in there because that looks hilarious, to be honest.

sbbrown333

So right now it looks like this:

FirstName LastName
Network Specialist
Company Name

So should I put it one line below my name?

FirstName LastName
CompTIA Certified Healthcare IT Technician
Network Specialist
SomeITCorp Inc.

bpenn

sbbrown333 wrote: »

So right now it looks like this:

FirstName LastName
Network Specialist
Company Name

So should I put it one line below my name?

FirstName LastName
CompTIA Certified Healthcare IT Technician
Network Specialist
SomeITCorp Inc.

Thats how many people at my company do it and it looks fine. I would go with that.

sbbrown333

I went with this:

FirstName LastName
JobTitle | Certified Healthcare IT Technician
Company Name

Thanks for everyone's input.

sj4088

I don't see the problem. After all the point of a cert is to let OTHERS know you have a certain skill level. Whether that is a client, coworker or whoever that may increase confidence in you which is a good thing.

OctalDump

Zombie thread back from the dead. I guess this is an ongoing question.

I think whether to list in your sig really depends on whether it's relevant to the recipient. If you are dealing with internal people who all know you, what you do, what your skills are, then it's not really necessary, and if the company culture is predominately not to list certifications it might seem a bit 'off' if you do like "What's this guy trying to say? You think you're better than me?"

On the other hand, if you were a private contractor or working for an MSP or a Sales Engineer or something where you are dealing mostly with external clients, then listing relevant certifications can be useful. It does the job that certifications were intended to do: communicate quickly a level of expertise. Where you need to sell yourself or reassure clients of your competence, this can be useful. But again, you might want to limit it to the relevant stuff, although the harder you are selling the "more relevant" everything becomes.

Personal experience: I used to work for an MSP. I just had my name, job title, company logo (linked to website) and phone number. Then we lost a small client to another company because "they were more qualified", which in fact they weren't, but no one had told them how qualified we were. So I started putting the relevant top level certification in my signature. I'm sure a lot of clients ignored it, but maybe one or two saw it in a positive light.

But working in different contexts, where 90% of emails were internal, I never put certs (or degrees), and neither did anyone else. But probably I am the kind of person that if I saw someone else in the company start doing it, I'd start doing it, too - "What you think you're better than me? I'll show you who's better!"

gorebrush

Mine is literally

First name Surname | CCIE #number | Job title

OctalDump

gorebrush wrote: »

Mine is literally

First name Surname | CCIE #number | Job title

Simple and understated. I guess, that's another reason to get CCIE

Kinet1c

gorebrush wrote: »

Mine is literally

First name Surname | CCIE #number | Job title

I can totally understand someone putting a CCIE/Microsoft MVP/VCDX/RHCE after their name, anything else and I personally wouldn't do it.

Network_Engineer

In Networking, it is CCIE # or nothing.