Mensa for Networking?

camspin:

Depends, do you like solving puzzles

Why yes, of course, almost as much as making pitch books.

Even if you joined I would not put that it on the resume. It looks kind of dorky and I would bet that the vast majority of individuals working in the industry are in the top 2% of the population as well...meaning that you would not be impressing many people.

But, if you want to join just for fun go for it. I just wouldn't go waving it around. Do that at your own risk.

the only person I know of who's mentioned mensa membership in their credentials is asia carrera

if you want come off as a total douche, go ahead and mention mensa.

I'd be much more impressed with someone who graduated with honors from a rigorous undergraduate program. So the hell if you are gifted- you have couple it with hard work to make it useful.

I have a fairly high iq according to childhood tests, but I do subpar in school (but a hard school). which matters more? the latter of course.

Please stop hating Mensa members. Thanks!

Wait, so it's a club that makes you pay dues and has an IQ requirement to be able to say you belong to it? Isn't the general consensus that the conventional IQ score is hardly a measure of intelligence? Modern psychology hasn't even defined intelligence. Debate's split like 5 different ways.

Furthermore, what a lame fucking thing to brag about. That's like joining a club for tall people or white people or people with blonde hair... all of which have been successful at some point, but whatever.

Brag about your accomplishments, not your supposed genetic potential. What a bunch of duckfuckers.

It's like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y9CC_lA4n0

good idea, but put it on the bottom of the resume with small letters you also never know who will you meet there - but they should be relatively bright people, and it is a good practice for your brain

imo, it would look very silly if it had a major spot on your CV, mention it among "training and certifications" or some other bottom part of the resume

Mentioning Mensa anywhere on your resume seems like a great way to advertise to a potential employer your (possibly debilitating) social awkwardness.

we throw good trivia nights in nyc

I wonder how bad your resume is if you are even considering this or if you are just trolling.

Gotta be a troll. If not, I'd think you were a douche if you put mensa member on your resume for an IB job.

If your GPA, test scores, and experience don't indicate that you are intelligent, I really doubt that being in some stupid club all about proclaiming how smart you are is going to help.

Animalz and Shorttheworld, thanks for your replies. I am in CT, but thanks for the tip about the NYC group's events. It certainly sounds like it's worth a train ride down to NYC to check out what's happening.

As for the rest of the replies, there must have been some mean troll drive-bys around here to make some people so tender :D.

Eddie, such a hilarious story, thanks for reposting :-)

Ed B: HILARIOUS STORY.

To the OP: I would seriously advise against that. I had a professionally administered IQ test in high school and all I would have had to have done is mail a few copies to these high IQ societies (Mensa et al) for membership. Of course, being the shithead that I was, I told my friends first. I'll sum up what I learned with: "Your friends don't need it and your enemies don't care."

I'm not a member in any such society. It'd put me multiple steps towards douche-dom. And I think even less of those who publicly flag it, such as on a resume, thinking they might gain some kind of public advantage. I liken it to SATs on undergrad resumes and GMATs on b-school resumes. Some folks even go as far as retaking the tests once they're in school, thinking it might give them a leg up in interviews. But I think it speaks to a serious lack of confidence in one's own track record.

Don't get me wrong, I hear McKinsey cares about this stuff. But a friend (who happened to have an astronomical gmat score, and surely IQ too) told me "the only purpose of this test is to get you into b-school. Once you're in..." And he's 100% right. What's the purpose of an IQ test? A Mensa membership? It doesn't help you with any of the prerequisites needed for breaking into Wall Street. All it does is plot you on a bell curve for non-trainable or barely-trainable cognitive abilities. And what are you supposed to do with that? It's just supposed to give you certainty that you can accomplish stuff with your mind. So go accomplish stuff.

I think it's a losing strategy.

Thank you guys for answers and nice story E.B. :)

I am just thinking about activities to engage in forthcoming year before applying to MBB that will stand my resume out.

I will be trying to obtain GMAT ~750 Have some ideas on businesses and some EC but Im afraid that this will not be enough..

Your time is much better spent building relationships with alums who will go to bat for you - even if you're non-target, there are probably people there who got in from MBA but went to your undergrad.

Probably all people from my uni went into smaller shops. I plan to to show up through linkedin but after preparing myself. At this point I dont think I have a shot.

Mensa will grant membership to anyone with a 720+ gmat score. That's half the class at top business schools.

So my question is: is listing MENSA on your resume a good/neutral thing or a bad thing? Does it give off the impression of intelligence or doucheyness?

At business school a friend listed it on his resume. We all made fun of him.

Honestly, I feel like MENSA is a low bar to pass and not the type of thing to tout on your resume.

I would not put Mensa anywhere near my cv. I only did it to help get my college scholarship.

Shouldn't a MENSA member be smart enough to know that putting MENSA on your resume is stupid?

full disclosure: ex-member

I work in an MBB firm and it wouldn't really impress, here's why: To be in Mensa you have to be in the top 2% in IQ. However, to even get into most of the target schools, you have to be at least this good, if not better (I'd wager the average Harvard student is in the top 1% IQ-wise at the very least, and a quick "market sizing" supports this). Then, you have to be above the average at a target to get hired. Thus, it's not really impressive, and you shouldn't put it on.

To echo the guy above me, shouldn't a MENSA member be smart enough to do this math? (sorry, that was mean, I'm just messing with you)

Most of the top guys at our university were not the smart ones. They were the hard working ones who memorized stuff like crazy. Worked their asses off. Just because you have a high IQ doesn't mean you're valuable to any company.

No.

I know a guy who is part of MENSA and included the membership on his CV... he is now at GS (S&T).

What are all these hate posts about Mensa members?

Mensa is retarded.

Initially, I thought I wouldn't give two cents about this. But then I found myself in same frustrated state as OP. Seems to be an error, or just (likely) beyond my reasoning ability.

It would seem that one step would be solving for "S" since its the only variable listed by itself twice. The vertical equations tell a lot about which digits are larger. For instance, S is larger than T, U, Y, and Z.

Gonna keep at this....

Solving for last column: UV + RV = R; we know R = 2, so UV + 2V = 2. In this instance, V must equal 1, leading U = 0. However, this leads to the first row becoming 2Q + S x T = 0. With numbers equal to or greater than 3 left, I don't see how this can be solved (this is because all numbers from 0 - 9 will be used, and there are 10 letters, so each letter has a corresponding value that is not equal to any other; this is given in the puzzle description). I'm likely making a dumb error or it's just above my head.

Took a quick look and am confused as to how it can even work.

Just looking at the bottom equation; TU + Z + S = R (2)

Given they need to be 0-9 and not 2, there's no way that those numbers can add up without being greater than 2, right?

Ugh, this makes me feel stupid...whether it's because I have no idea how to figure it out or because I was dumb enough to bother looking at it in the first place, is unclear.

Barney Stinson: "We'll call it Puzzles. Then everyone will be like 'Why did they call it Puzzles?' That's the Puzzle!"