Self-definition

Michael posted a comment on my post about the ACS membership. He referred to Scott Hanselman's post about how useless that kind of thing is. I figure I should make a couple of things clear.

I certainly don't chase having letters after my name. If I did, I'd be joining every professional society I could. I don't ever write my name with the full set of letters at the end. It's not even on my business cards. I'm happy to refer people to my MCP Transcript, and I wish that my uni transcript was available online (it would save me feeling like I needed have a copy available).

But having said that, I do think that people need to find ways of differentiating themselves from the crowd. For Scott, I'm sure he could call himself all kinds of things to let people know that he knows his stuff. For people who are MS-MVPs, they tend to put that after their name on newsgroups, etc. It gives them a bit of credibility perhaps.

Am I proud to have uni degrees, MS Certs, and ACS membership? Sure. Do I want to flaunt them? Nah, not really. They're useful for potential employers or clients, but that's about it. If I had a PhD, I wouldn't call myself "Dr" much - I don't see the point. But if I were a pastor in my church, I'd happily call myself "Pr Rob", because that helps people understand that they are welcome to talk to me about stuff outside the standard IT stuff that people ask me. Adam Cogan says he'd like to be "Mountaineer Adam". I assume he's not serious, but it's how he sees himself. I'm all for that.

If you see your degree as defining who you are, then put your degree after your name. If you see your MS Certs as defining you, then put them. If there's something else that you think defines you better, then put that too.

But you can just call me Rob. It means 'to steal'.