So my dad is a doctor… Of course he has his diplomas and certifications on the wall of his office.
But it reminds me of a Jerry Seinfeld bit where he says, “You know I really am a doctor, you know… Just look right there on the wall…”
So it got me to thinking…Why do doctors do this? Does any other profession do this regularly? I will have a Computer Science degree, which I will be very proud of, why can’t I hang my degree on the wall?
Anyway, it’s always bothered me.
Lawyers, self-employed accountants and university/college professors.
And of course you can hang your degree, it’s only that I’ve never had a place where I can hang it and customers will see it. My coworkers already know I’m an engineer.
Actuaries. My qualifications (uni degrees and Fellowship certificate) are framed and hanging on my office wall.
In some professions, it’s an ethical and legal violation not to be very clear about what you’re trained in. For a health care provider with a vendor’s license, that license is to be displayed in your place of business.
My dental hygienist has her degree posted on the wall. People who cut hair also display some sort of license, though maybe not a diploma.
An admin assistant at the college I used to work at had all of her degrees displayed on the wall, along with all of the framed certificates from awards she’d gotten as a student. The highest she went was a BA but she had a couple of different AA degrees in various businessy stuff. I though the whole display was rather sad. When I become a professor I think I’m going to hang mine about two inches above the baseboard in my office.
The garage where we take our cars for maintenance has several framed certificates on the wall in the waiting area. Not college degrees, of course, but verification that their mechanics are certified by the Muckety-Muck Auto Repair Association to do this or that type of repair work.
There’s nothing that says you can’t hang your diploma on the wall of your office or cubicle. But as pprgrl points out, that may not be the best way to display your qualifications. Any awards, etc. you’ve earned should certainly be displayed, however.
And I’ll second what susan said. Licenses are proof that you are legally entitled to practice whatever profession you practice, and since many licenses are predicated on having a particular degree, it makes a lot of sense to post diplomas, which are proof of that education. But it’s not the big, fancy diploma that entitles you to practice, it’s the little piece of paper from the state, and the state usually says you have to make the license available for public inspection. For most of us, that means posting it in the office or cubicle, and keeping a smaller version in our wallet.
Robin
what else can you do with them, after all? I’d rather put them on a wall at my office than at home, since they’re mainly work-related.
Now that I think about it, there was an interesting thread a while ago about where people kept their degrees if they didn’t frame them.
I am a civil engineer (roadway design) and the policy has varied from place to place where I have worked. For most places it has been in the culture to hang diplomas and the Professional Engineer certification in your office or cube. Once place I was at had a large wall where everyone’s diploma was hung, kind of a “This is how good we are” wall. A bit overly pretentious IMHO.
At that same place I was once searching through some stored boxes and came across the PE certificates for about 2 dozen people, most of whom did not work at the place anymore. The department admin assistant and I worked to get them all back to the rightful owners. My PE certificate is important enough to me that I would hate to not know where it was! (Not that the original is necessary for keeping up with the certification renewal.)
Sometimes it gets kind of silly.
I know of one surgeon (an online advocate for creationism, which of course is neither here nor there 
) who proudly cites in his CV the fact that he is a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners. Which means that like every other doc, he passed one or more preliminary national exams in med school. Nice, but hardly noteworthy. If you see a certificate like that on an MD’s wall, they’re going overboard in seeking acceptance/worship.
When I worked at the Mega Whopper Engineering Co., they had this great idea to make 8x10’s of all the engineers’ resume photos and post them on the wall. Every day I had to walk by myself wearing that god-awful suit. :shudder:
I can’t fathom not knowing where my PE is. I’ve got two diplomas, two P.E. certs and a CFM cert on my office wall. It’s good for people to know that yes, I’m licensed and edjumacated enough to handle their projects.
Northern Piper: I remember that thread. I was surprised at the number of people who had them boxed up somewhere. Geez, ya paid enough for it! 
Merkwurdigliebe: the practice also allows people to know where you went to University. To some folks that’s a Big Deal [sup]TM[/sup].
It shouldn’t. SWMBO and I have our rank certificates and instructor certification certificates hanging on the wall of the school. I’ve got a copy of my degree hanging on the wall of my office at work (BBA/MIS).
That’s the MO in my office. Once you get an office or a “nice” cube (we have two different types), it’s expected that your diploma/certifications will be hanging there.
I guess you could hang your diploma in the crappy cube but I wouldn’t have any faith in it not falling off.
Most of the administrators in my school district have all their diplomas on the wall in their office.
A lot of the lawyers I work with have their diplomas hanging in their offices. I view it as a kind of inoffensive artwork (although there are some who hang them because they’re still so darn proud that they went to XYZ school).
My commission, and my diploma from Command & General Staff College. Neat old-looking documents, I have them on my office wall.
In my case, I’d have kept them in the envelope they came in. Although my mother each time disappeared from the graduation ceremony with them and framed them. So they sit among piles of random stuff, in the frames. I’m not interested in putting them on display. If people want to know my qualifications, they can ask, and if they need to know them then I’ll tell them.
I recall when Admiral Somedarnbody retired he reported all those things on his office wall made great kindling from all those years in the air conditioning.