Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Can Mensa Help Me Get Hired?
Q. I'm what I would consider a mid-career journalist trying to change jobs. While I have plenty of clips to demonstrate my performance across a couple of decades and several publications, there is one thing that in my opinion distinguishes me from many of my peers: I am a member of
Mensa.
[That is, I qualified for membership via high scores on certain accepted tests (such as college entrance and grad school exams) and joined years ago out of curiosity. Mensa membership allegedly is limited to the top 2 percent of IQ.]
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Now, I see people putting things on their resumes all the time that have nothing really to do with their training or abilities; things that are flukes or strokes of luck or the result of circumstances outside of their control, such as ethnicity (due to their parents), gender (parents again) and Ivy League education (parents again, at least in part). Even references can carry more clout if their family knows a lot of big shots. And let's be honest about internships. They aren't distributed strictly according to merit -- some of us cannot afford to pursue them because we need the best-paying summer jobs available just to keep up with tuition, room and board and books.
If those are fair game to list on a resume, shouldn't my intellectual capacity and my potential for grasping and mastering new skills and roles -- as indicated by Mensa qualifying -- be on there too?
Yet I have had colleagues react as if I'm bragging. Or joking. Well, resumes are essentially bragging of a sort anyway, and I most certainly am not joking.
My second question is, would an editor who reacts negatively to a mention of Mensa on a resume be acting unfairly? I know bosses who get all excited to learn that a staffer played on his university's football team, yet might feel threatened by -- or think it's uncool to be around -- a "brainy" person. It's almost as if there is a bias against smart folks, one far more accepted than against races or religions.
I'm tired of the "If you're so smart, why are you a newspaper man?" comments. Doesn't this industry need all the smart folks that it can get? Or keep?
Sincerely,
Joe W.A. Yes, we do want the smartest people we can get. And many interviewers try to gauge candidates' intelligence in the interview. A test, like the one you passed for Mensa qualification, is more precise than a subjective interview.
The question, though, is whether the editors you've been talking to are familiar with Mensa and whether they believe that Mensa measures the kinds of intelligence they are looking for. We need people who have academic talent, street smarts, linguistic ability, pure intellect -- all kinds of intelligences. And we need other qualities, too, such as hard work, passion and integrity.
The editor who responded negatively to your Mensa membership may be ignorant, threatened or biased. Some people even tell Mensa jokes. He may be one of them, or he might just be seeking proof that you can apply your intellect to journalism through internships and jobs. He may be looking for experience, rather than a certification.
I think it is fine to put your Mensa membership on your resume, and to be ready to explain what it means. But I would also get experience and evidence of these other qualities on your resume, too. Experience is probably the best evidence that you can do the job.
And I would lose this attitude that other people are unfairly getting opportunities that you might more properly deserve because of your intellectual capacity. Get out there and get some experience, even if it means starting with small opportunities and working your way up. Mensa, good as it is, is not a substitute for experience.
The recruiter asks back: How best to play this qualification? How do people in your newsroom regard Mensa membership? Join the discussion by clicking
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Coming Thursday: As resources have piled more work on her plate, she is now looking to leave a dream job at a paper where she has worked for 10 years. But she worries about career suicide.
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