Monday, October 8, 2012

diploma displays

A while back, I was reading through the comments on an Ask a Manager post (can't figure out which one now) and there was a long side conversation about displaying diplomas in your office. Opinions varied, but most of the commentators thought that displaying them was pretentious/obnoxious.

I have my diplomas and my professional certifications displayed in my office. My parents' graduation present was to get the fancy frame for both degrees, and they don't fit anywhere at home, so I brought them to the office.

When I first read that commentary on AAM, I thought, "oh, it's different for us scientific folks. We display everything!" Then I got curious and did a survey of the scientists and engineers I work with. Hardly anyone displays their diplomas, and only about half display their professional certifications.

Hmm. Does this make me pretentious?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

With people I work with from most common to least common:
PhD>Former officer of professional society appreciation plaque>any other degree>any other award.

As a field we're not required to be licensed, and although our professional society has a certification program that most people participate in, I don't think I've ever seen the certificate- it's not equivalent to a PE. But displaying the PhD if you have one is pretty de rigueur.

Lockwood said...

Well, *I* don't think so. I've seen lots of people who do and lots who don't, and I think it's just a matter of person style and taste- like displaying family/life partner photos in office. If it's important to you- and degrees (Masters and PhD especially) are certainly huge works and accomplishments that one should be proud of- it's your call. For the record, when I had an office, I didn't display diplomas. I had books and funny pictures.