Credential Cred and Education Etiquette

Mike Griffiths is an experienced project manager, author and consultant who works for PMI as a subject matter expert. Before joining PMI, Mike consulted and managed innovation and technology projects throughout Europe, North and South America for 30+ years. He was co-lead for the PMBOK Guide—Seventh Edition, lead for the Agile Practice Guide, and contributor to the PMI-ACP and PMP exam content outlines. Outside of PMI, Mike maintains the websites www.LeadingAnswers.com about leading teams and www.PMillustrated.com, which teaches project management for visual learners.

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When signing off on an email or having a name badge prepared, how do you reference your credentials? Are you the modest sort who lists the most relevant credential for that circumstance and omits the others? For instance, “Mary Jones, PMP” for a PMI Chapter badge and “Mary Jones, CSM” when posting to the Scrum forum. Or do you fit one of the other stereotypes?

Shock and Awe: List all of them. Perhaps using a mentality of “I worked hard to get these suckers, so I’m gonna use them!”, some people seem compelled to list credentials that exceed their name lengths. “Bill Smithe, PhD, MBA, BSc, PgMP, PMP, PMI-RMP, PRINCE2, CSM, CSP, CST”. To me, these people come across as a little pedantic and trying to compensate for something...as if we should bow down before their obvious expertise and wisdom. Or perhaps that’s my subconscious reaction to my obvious qualification shortfall?

Either way, why do some people list a PhD and a BSc, or a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and a Certified Scrum Master (CSM)? If one is more advanced that the other, why not just list the most advanced one? Anyway, doubtless someone with more qualifications that I have will point out how a PhD is quite different to a BSc and the importance of listing both, but until then this seems a little redundant.

You Should Know Me! These people list …

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