Dude, us frats do lots of community service.
You know that fat chick? That one with the glasses who reads stupid stuff all the time? Chad got totally baked and did her at the party in the bushes. She’ll never get someone of that cal… uh more great… uh… gooder than him again. She’ll get over it, a couple bumps build cha… perso… urrr smiles or something.
Man, why are those cops here again?
I had a bunch of friends who were Deeks. Being a long-haired hippy dude back when that was not fraternity-friendly demeanor, I never even thought about joining a frat. But they did ask me if I’d like to move in to help with the lease payment on the Deek house.
Something nobody’s mentioned yet is when you went to college. If you’ve just graduated, then I could see including fraternity activities on your resume (although you should stress the activities over the frat part). If (as the example in the OP) you’ve been out of college for a while, I’d say no. When you’re over 30 and you’re still ranking your frat fund raiser as a major achievement in your life, it looks pretty lame.
And frats as part of the ‘college experience’? Hah. I guess since my school didn’t have frats, then nobody got the real college experience. (though in all fairness, Tom Lehrer did call us a “hotbed of celibacy.”)
Moderator’s note:
Folks, keep the discussion on topic and civil. Whatever your opinion on the Greek system, pro or con, leave blanket personal condemnations out of it. Show some respect for the OP and the forum. As slow as the board is right now, it’d have to be locked rather than moved.
TVeblen,
IMHO mod
OK, Sublight’s comments force me to consider that your graduating resume might well be different from that you at 30 years of age proferr. Still. fraternal orginization affilitations don’t seem like a plus unless you know your boy is in there.
I don’t think it’s really worth much.
As you can probably tell from this thread, people’s opinions about fraternities vary widely and they may all be correct. At my college some 50% of the students were greek. It was just a part of the campus life. If you were a nerd, you joined the nerd fraternity. If you played lacross, you joined the lacross house. Most of the houses contributed a great deal in terms of campus life and community service. Fraternities provide opportunities for leadership that you might otherwise not have. And yet there will always be those who only see a bunch hazing, alchoholics who take liberties with their female guests. (and we did 
)
As for putting it on your resume…it’s hard to say. Fraternities can be an excellent source of networking. A large number of presidents, CEOs, and other business leaders belonged to fraternities. It makes sense when you think about it. The same qualities that make someone successful in the business world - good personality, ambition, leadership - are the same qualities that would lead someone to join a fraternity. I encounter fellow fraternity brothers all the time professionally and I have even been hired for jobs directly because of my fraternity relations.
On the other hand you may get someone like raisinbread who has an irational bias.
As a professional adult, my recomendation is to leave the fraternity stuff off. You are entering the grown up world and as much as we 20 and 30 somethings want to relive our fraternity days, Magna Cum Laude looks a lot more impressive than Lamba Chi Alpha.
When I was job hunting straight out of college, I emphasized leadership experience on my resume. This included certain achievements when I was a fraternity officer. And yes, it did help.
If you put your fraternity on your resume, emphasize what you accomplished. “Member of Gamma Delta Iota fraternity for 4 years” doesn’t mean anything. “As a GDI officer, I …” says something. Organizing a major project is noteworthy. Managing a $100K annual budget (including the frat house mortgage) is noteworthy. Leading a substantial change in frat goals is noteworthy. Drinking a keg every weekend ain’t.
I concur that once you’ve had a job after college, your work experience counts for more than your college days.
Listing professional and honor fraternities might help. Service fraternities (such as A Phi O) are probably also worth listing.
But did they know you were a member of that fraternity because it was on your resume or by other means? I assume “by other means,” because you recommend that he leave it off…
I listed my acheivements as part of a greek organization on my first resume as a college grad. They were an important part of my extracurricular activities. Of course, as soon as I had some job experience, I took it off.
I don’t think you’ve mentioned… how recently did you graduate? Like Green Bean and the others, I listed my fraternity experience on my first resume, but only because I had a position with some responsibility. Once I start looking for another job, it’s coming off. I also thought my experience was different because my house was dry by choice (not by punishment). Either people don’t care, or don’t believe me, so it’s hardly worth mentioning anymore.
Well I definitely joined the wrong one, then!
I think the consensus we’ve seemed to have reached is that it’s not a bad idea when you’re just out of school, especially if you emphasize particular activities over mere membership. After you have had time to garner some professional experience, then putting it on the resume looks like padding.
–Cliffy
Good question. I graduated in 1998, and got a great job right out of school, but want very much to change fields, so my professional experience could use the padding. No one at the basket-weaving firm is going to care that I have worked in the thumb-twiddling industry for the last 4 years, but might care about my leadership skills. But as evidenced above, just the mention of the Greek system inspires a considerable amount of negative reaction.
Just popped back in to see how this was going, and all I have to add at this point is “Wow!”
I think the Frat membership might do you the most good if you worked contacts through your national. That way you stand a better chance that you’ll meet people to whom your frat membership might be important.
11811, who deactivated sophomore year.
I have reason to be biased, btw. As aforementioned, I spent my first whole semester with my brother and his frat. I saw them playing drinking games and changing the rules midstream to get girls drunker. I was used as a prop to attract girls to my brother and his close friend. I heard how they talked about girls they had been with between each other. I saw them spike drinks.
They use their one-two community service projects per semester as a reason why they belong on campus and deserve special privileges. Frat boys are the only students at LSU who’re allowed a pair of student tickets to football games - and they get better seats then everyone else.
As I said before, though, I wouldn’t hold it against someone if they put down that they were in a frat - but heaven forbid I don’t think it’s a plus.
That’s not completely untrue. I for one joined a fraternity so I could drink, meat girls, and party. The community service stuff was mostly a nusaince imposed on us by the National HQ.
If you are a house officer (like I was) you do have opportunities for leadership. Organizing parties, recruiting events, maintaining relations with the school and community (so they don’t throw you off everytime a pledge is found naked on the doorsteps of the Presidents house). Believe me, it’s tough to motivate 35 alchoholics to do anything that doesn’t involve girls or beer.
If you do be prepaired to talk about it. If asked what did you do don’t say we hung out and drank beer.
Was that a typo, or did you mean it to come out like that?
(sorry, couldn’t resist)
LOL at the meat girls!!!
I don’t have ANYTHING against FRATERNITY boys! Their parties don’t end until 8 in the morning!!!
Take some advice from us greeks (and alums) NEVER use the word FRAT! It’s derogatory (sp?).
As a former frat boy, I say that if you’re offended by the word “frat” you need a thicker skin and a more developed sense of what’s important. I’ve heard the “Would you call your country…” argument several times, but it usually comes from drunken idiots who do more damage to the reputation of their house through their own disgraceful behavior than a harmless abbreviation could ever do.
No…that’s what I meant:D