The Business Blog at Intuitive.com

Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. Dave maintains three weblogs, The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, focused on business and industry analysis, the eponymous Ask Dave Taylor devoted to tech and business Q&A and The Attachment Parenting Blog, discussing topics of interest to parents. Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs.

Should you include degrees on your business card?

In my morning wave of email was this query from my friend Rob McNealy of Startup Story Radio, via LinkedIn Questions: "Do you think it is cheesy to put MBA on your business cards and in your online profiles? I am a recovering MBA. I have never put the letters MBA after my name or on my business cards. However, lately I have been seeing more and more people putting their MBA's in their profiles. Is the MBA making a comeback?"

I've thought about this on and off too, as I also have an MBA and an Masters Degree in Education. I think it would look pretty spiffy to have Dave Taylor, MSEd, MBA on my business card, but I think the issue is whether it's right for your target community or not.

In some of the communities I'm in, having those initials would be clearly pretentious and I think detrimental to the intent of my card reminding people of me later, when they're cleaning out their briefcase / wallet / purse. If I were more in academic circles, however, then I would definitely include these credentials, just as if I were in the healthcare industry I'd list other certifications too (did you know I was a certified Reiki master, for example? Not really relevant to blogging, is it?)

Let's open this up, however. Do you have credentials, initials, degrees on your business card or in your email signature? Or do you eschew it all?

By the way, I've written about business card design in the past, if you're curious about my thoughts regarding best practices in this area.

Oh, and in terms of whether the MBA is making a comeback, quite the opposite. The recent coverage in publications like BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal suggest that there's a great dissatisfaction with the quality of contemporary Masters in Business Administration studies. Indeed, some of the very biggest business schools (Wharton, Stanford, etc) are busy re-examining their entire curriculum to ascertain whether they really prepare managers for success in the "flat earth" 21st century.

Posted by Dave Taylor at November 27, 2007 9:45 AM

Comments

Hi Dave --

Interesting question! I have an MA in science journalism, and while I always list it on my site, I never thought to list it on my business card. And only one client has ever listed it as part of my bio/credits on the product. That said, however, I do think it's a significant plus on my resume, and does help to get me work.

Cathy Dold

Posted by: Cathy Dold on November 27, 2007 10:02 AM

I am not a big person for putting academic credentials behind your name unless you are a either a "doctor" - Ph.D, MD, Ed.D, etc or you have a certain type of certification that is relevant to your job function.

For example, I have an MS degree along with an FMP (Facility Management Professional). I only attach the FMP to my name on my email signature and not the MS degree. The FMP is relevant to my profession - it shows that I have achieved a relevant level of knowledge in the area. The MS degree is added and can be explained in further conversation if needed.

Posted by: Dave on November 28, 2007 6:20 PM

Good post. I am a CCIM, which is a commercial real estate designation. So, in the CRE world, I put it after my name in emails and business cards. I do this mostly because I want to meet other CCIMs. In other circles, however, people have no clue what that means, so I usually don't mention it.

Posted by: Rob on November 29, 2007 4:36 PM

Dave:

I think the comments are valid, as are your points. Many people responded to my LinkedIn question, and I am blogging about the results at my website - www.StartupStoryRadio.com.

Cheers,

Rob

Posted by: Rob McNealy on November 30, 2007 8:00 PM

i think your credentials are part of your name, part of your identity and leaving it off is like leaving off part of your name

the other day i was checking into buying a house and the guy due to my youthful appearance asked if i had school loan payments. i said yes but forgot i looked young so he assumed undergrad. well this doens't help my credibility in looking at houses and i was told to look at townhomes. this guy had no idea that i graduated from HS nearly 20yrs ago. So, if i had put my master's degree on my info sheet, maybe i would have gotten more respect. i guess it depends. sometimes i use it when someone talks down to me at work because they are used to talking to people in my group like that, especially if the person is correcting me when i have evidence i wasn't wrong. l-o-v-e that 1-2 punch. what can they say. you can soften the blow by saying, hope i can help or at your service or something like that.

Posted by: anon on March 7, 2008 2:21 AM

"It depends" is the copout, correct answer. If the alphabet soup of initials behinds a person's name comes off as pretentious, then it is. If it informs or is part of an industry's nomenclature and lets the audience know you are a person of gravitas, go for it.

Posted by: Christopher A Curtin on April 16, 2008 10:27 AM

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