Is it appropriate to put MBA after your name?
Why do people put MBA after their name on their resume? Or within their signature line of cover letters (note: be sure to practice proper email signature etiquette)?
Earning an MBA takes perseverance and a lot of hard work. Once you graduate, you may want to advertise your hard work by listing your credentials after your name.
Sometimes, however, this can seem awkward or pretentious.
Learn when it’s appropriate to list your degree your name and you can spread the word about your achievement without worrying about offending anyone.
Here are 3 Examples of When/Why to Use MBA After Your Name
When Applying for Work
► Your resume is the ideal place to list your credentials and go into depth about your degree. Include it right after your name at the top of the page in addition to your more in-depth information listed in the education section.
Often there are so many job candidates that ► employers only devote a few seconds to each resume. Make yours stand out from the top.
Whenever you’re sending a cover letter to a potential employer, you can include the MBA after your full name in order to set yourself apart from the competition.
Getting New Clients
List your MBA after your full name when aiming to attract new clients. This might be where you want to list your MBA concentrations, too.
When you first contact a potential client, you’ll want to show that you’re highly educated and qualified to handle their business, so sign your full name with your title afterward. If your business competitors aren’t sharing their degrees with the clients, you’re going to be the one who seems most qualified. On the other hand, once someone has become your client, you don’t need to continuously tell them you’ve got an MBA.
It’s not necessary to include your credentials after your initial correspondence as clients they may start feeling like you’re being pretentious. By then you may be on a first-name basis anyway, and your accreditation belongs after your full name.
When Demonstrating Your Credibility
When you’re aiming to attract new clients or apply for work, you can add MBA because you’re establishing your credibility. If there are any other circumstances in which you want to demonstrate how qualified you are for the task at hand, ► feel free to list your credentials after your name. Suitable circumstances may include:
- Publishing an article or study relevant to your career field
- Attending a conference
- Giving a guest lecture
- Leading a workshop
In these circumstances, go the extra step and list the university at which you studied in order to earn the degree. The quality of the university may help lend you even greater credibility, and it’s a great conversation starter if you want to compare and contrast programs with other people holding master’s degrees.
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When Everybody Does It
If you frequently see people in your industry including MBA after their name in emails, on business cards and company profiles, feel free to follow suit.
One example where your MBA accreditation is expected to be on display is if you teach college courses; since not all associate college professors have advanced degrees.
However, remember to keep in mind that people with whom you interact on a regular basis, such as return clients, don’t need to continuously see your degree. Also, your title should appear after your full name and never after your given name only.
You finally earned that marketing or a master’s accounting degree online. Whatever your area of specialization, your MBA is an achievement that only a few people share. Feel free to write MBA after your name whenever it’s appropriate, you earned it.
Article Written by Darryl Sobczak, a contributing writer, and a human resources consultant. He regularly writes about business etiquette on his blog.
EDITORIAL ADDITION:
You might be wondering if you should mention your MBA after your name on your LinkedIn profile.
At one time, it was recommended that you SHOULD NOT put anything after your name in your LinkedIn profile.
The reason was believed to violate LinkedIn’s terms of use.
However, LinkedIn is now embracing the technique.
How to Put MBA in Your LinkedIn Profile
Just like your resume, referencing an MBA in your LinkedIn profile is ideal as well.
An MBA can be listed under education. No surprise there.
But, why do people put MBA after their names in the top section too?
Similar to what we see in a resume?
Here’s an example of that in action:
So, how would you go about adding something similar to your LinkedIn profile?
First, log into your LinkedIn profile and select “update your profile.”
That link is listed under your picture on the left side of the page.
Second, click on the edit pencil.
A popup will then show that looks similar to this:
Third, simply add MBA after your last name.
Easy enough, right?
But, is going this extra step necessary?
Maybe.
The LinkedIn recruitment platform is feature-rich.
And, recruiters and hiring managers can filter job candidates by education level.
So, listing MBA after your name is really more of a visual element that may or may not attract interest from those performing manual database searches.
In fact, professionals with advanced degrees oftentimes put this designation within their email signatures, business cards, and cover letters.