Are there any benefits to getting into Mensa other than just being able to say that you were smart enough to get in. Is just a social group for the intellectual elite?
I meant to ask also, would it help to mention membership on a job application if they ask about your involvement in any organizations?
There are no concrete benefits as such, I believe. The main benefit usually cited is access to other brainiacs, which means that whatever your question is, you probably have the phone number to someone who knows the answer in your Rolodex. In other words, it’s much like the SDMB, except that here, you don’t have to leave the computer to get your phone.
As for mentioning it on your job application, it certainly cannot hurt and it probably helps.
The benefit is that it is another method of networking. That’s about it.
It would irritate me if someone put Mensa on a job application under organizations. I would count it as a very minor strike against you. If I am looking for an engineer I would only expect to see appropriate professional oganizations there such as ASME or IEEE. In my opinion people who put things like Rotary, fraty/sorority groups, religious organizations and Mensa on a resume are looking for a cheap in with someone. At one place I worked we called it the resume secret handshake.
Haj
Well, my reasoning was that people who qualify to get into Mensa possess some pretty damn decent problem solving skills. A definite plus for any job in my opinion.
IMHO, Mensa is for people who need to prove how smart they are by joining, which I regard as lame. I’m another one who’d count it as a strike against – and when I’m screening job applicants it’s for Mensa types (potential puzzle editors).
Siege will be along any second to tell Haj and me how wrong we are.
[QUOTE=twickster]
IMHO, Mensa is for people who need to prove how smart they are by joining, which I regard as lame. I’m another one who’d count it as a strike against – and when I’m screening job applicants it’s for Mensa types (potential puzzle editors).QUOTE]
Well, the same could be said about people responding to posts in GQ. They do it just to prove how smart they are. 
True – but I do it relatively anonymously, and not as an entry on my resume. 
I got a baseball cap that said “official thinking cap”.
Ok, ok. That makes sense. I guess as someone who has hired people before, I would impressed by an applicant who was a member. (Not all members are pedants that throw their intelligence into your face)
In case anyone thinks that I’m bitter or something, I qualified for Mensa when I was fifteen or sixteen and was a member for two years. I went to exactly one event read two years worth of the local L.A. news letter and found the whole thing boring. You could argue that I didn’t give it a fair chance or something but I found other things to take up my time.
Haj
When I graduated from high school, I found that my SAT scores qualified me for membership in Mensa. I did an informal survey of hiring managers that I knew in high-tech fields. I asked six managers, if they had two equally qualified candidates and one was a Mensa member, what would they do. All six told me they’d hire the non-Mensa member. I don’t remember the exact phrasing of their reasons, but they all basically felt that Mensa members were pretentious snobs.
If you want to join for the purposes of meeting other intelligent people, go for it. But I’d recommend against putting it on a resume.
Mensa’s 98th-percentile requirement means that there are really quite a lot of people who are qualified to enter – one in fifty. Since only the results of a single test are required to qualify, it’s possible that even more than 2% of the population has met the requirements at least once. In the sorts of fields where pure cognitive ability is an important job requirement, it’s quite likely that the majority of applicants will qualify for Mensa anyway. Imagine you’re trying to find a quantum physicist, a rocket scientist, or a brain surgeon. You’re really only considering the top few percent of the IQ range, and you’d be more likely to look at qualifications that are actually relevant to the job than whether they’ve bothered to join and participate in an organization that proves their intelligence in ways that don’t necessarily relate to the field.
I agree, quite strongly, with hajario that membership in fraternal, political and religious organizations should never be put on resumes. Stating membership in religious organizations means stating one’s religion, which opens the door for discrimination for or against an applicant on the basis of religion. The same is true for all sorts of organizations ranging from the Rotarians to the Republican Party to the NAACP. Saying that you’re a member of these organizations says something about you that is not relevant to your qualifications for a job.
Check through this thread or this one for discussions of various possible advantages of the organization.
For some reason, in April 2003 there were four different threads on this topic, three more in July, and two more in May of this year.
There are several benefits to Mensa members.
- They can hang the membership ‘wallpaper’ for all to see.
- They have bragging right that they have more intelligence than you.
- They can expect no special considertion on job applications.
OK, I gave a couple of links, but feel obligated to re-state a couple of things anyway. I’ve been a member of Mensa for over 20 years. I’ve been to gatherings across the country. One thing I’ve never, ever, heard discussed, let along bragged about, is intelligence. In fact, Mensans rarely, in my experience, bring up their membership or their intelligence to anybody. It just brings you more grief.
The benefit, IMHO, to membership is the wide variety of people who are intelligent in so many different ways. I’ve met people from artists to zoologists, PhDs and very bright high-school dropouts. What they generally have in common is inquisitiveness, openness to new ideas, and the ability to understand the explanations.
That said, I would not necessarily give preference to a Mensan applying for a job. There are so many more important qualifications. For many jobs, yes, intelligence has some importance, but I’m sure we all know very smart people with advanced degrees that we would not trust to change our baby’s diaper or take a letter to the mailbox unescorted.
There is little or no point to joining the organization to “prove how smart you are.” If you think you need to prove it, other than to yourself, you ain’t that smart. OTOH, it can help an individual with lower self-esteem to feel better and more confident.
I’ve been a member for over 30 years. This doesn’t make me closer to God…but it does give me the experience to answer your questions.
First, don’t ever, ever put Mensa membership on a resume or job application; it’s the kiss of death. No boss wants to hire someone who he’s afraid is smarter than he is.
Second, no, there are no concrete benefits. You don’t get a cut in your taxes, no rebates on purchases, nothing else of that nature.
Third, probably the majority of people who join are the type of jerk (about one-star rank) who want the certificate to use for brow-beating spouses, relatives or subordinates. As long as they pay their dues, we don’t mind; we don’t bother them and they don’t bother the real members.
Fourth, you won’t find a lot of academics and you won’t find corporate tycoons. Only rarely do you find someone truly wealthy.
Mensa’s purpose seems to have become, very early in its history, that of providing a family of sorts for those individuals who don’t get intellectual stimulation elsewhere. We see a lot of bright housewives, middle managers, techies and geeks, and a certain percentage of taxi drivers who work on writing novels while waiting in taxi lines at the airport.
[hijack] I once spent an hour listening to a fascinating conversation between 4 Mensa taxi drivers about the best way to get to one place from another at which times of the day.
[/hijack]
In short, yes, it’s a social organization, pretty purely, but a very important one to those who often feel lonely when in a random group of people.
And the real reason, I stayed in Mensa for so long: The unofficial motto of Mensa, all the way back to the 60’s: If you can’t get laid in Mensa, you can’t get laid. 
No, I wouldn’t put it on a resume. As others have said, I’ve enjoyed the company. Yes, there are several friends who I wouldn’t trust with anything sharper than Velcro™. Mostly, they’re just people, with the usual assortment of clowns and angels - or so I’ve found. YMMV.
I like the women, sure enough. A lot of them have a wise sparkle to the eyes that you don’t find just everywhere.
Right, talking about one’s own IQ is Not Done. OTOH, you can use just the exact odd word you like, and most will recognize it as either appropriate or pretentious, and respond accordingly. The few who don’t recognize it will simply ask what it means, without insecurity.
I’ve found that in the group, I’m not pigeon-holed into my nominal profession, and I can talk about whatever interests or talents or expertise I may have without any who-are-you? stares.
hajario, different groups are different, and the same group can change over time, or spawn little subgroups that might have something more to offer. Or maybe not.
I’ve been in Mensa longer than I’ve been doing Dope, but they appeal to me similarly. Ignorance is a terrible thing, and I don’t care if it takes until the end of next year to finish the fight (with appologies to Scott Adams for swiping one of his lines).
I certainly don’t expect every Mensa group world wide to be exactly like the Los Angeles group of the early 1980’s. I am sure that you’re correct about that.
snort My reasons for not being impressed by Mensa on a resume have nothing whatsoever about not wanting an employee to be smarter than me. I would love an employee who was smarter than me. I would be concerned about an employee who thought it was appropriate to put a social organization on a resume for a technical position.
Haj
That works the other way, they don’t have to turn on a computer, not to mention phones don’t get viruses or spyware and don’t crash nearly as often. [sup]And with the new “Don’t Call” law there isn’t near as much spam[/sup]