Why join Mensa?

[mrcockburn]

I've hit this sort of thing where I was refused a job because I was "overqualified." But that just taught me to aim higher. Eventually I aimed high enough and found a boss who didn't mind stocking his department with high-paid geniuses.

But at that point, Mensa won't be enough, because EVERYONE will be Mensa material. You'll have to join the Prometheus Society. Moving target!

 

[RDF]

I actually had a bad experience at the only event I attended there (I joined for the discounts, which YES...outweighed the costs of membership). So for a while, I was convinced that Mensans were rude and unfriendly. That was probably more the area the chapter was located than Mensa itself though.

No one there was even my age. It was totally awkward and I felt like I was intruding.

I kind of wondered. When I get a lot of pushback from someone, it often turns out that they have some prior personal experience with Mensa.

Yeah, the smaller chapters are often ossified and inbred, ruled by greyhairs who have run it one way forever and don't want anyone to challenge them. I was turned off by my first (and second) exposure to Mensa myself. I investigated a chapter in Honolulu and later one in Phoenix and had bad experiences with both. It was like going to a family barbecue with a bunch of cranky grandparents and elderly aunts and uncles. It was only when I was in DC that I found a chapter big enough and active enough that it was worth joining. (And of course I myself was older by then.)

FWIW, the big chapters are making a real effort to reach out to younger people. The greyhairs aren’t going to last forever. The DC chapter has active Generation X and Gen Y SIGs (Special Interest Groups), and the leader (LocSec) of the DC chapter is himself a Gen X-er.

So if you’re younger, then yeah--it may be imperative to seek out one of the bigger chapters or head out to the bigger events: RGs and AGs. The smaller chapters can be a little scary: The people in the small chapters just don’t realize how old and out-of-touch they’ve become.

 

[RDF]

But at that point, Mensa won't be enough, because EVERYONE will be Mensa material. You'll have to join the Prometheus Society. Moving target!

Naw, the more the merrier! I wish they would allow in the top 5% instead of just the top 2%. Bigger parties!

 

[redcheerio]

From what I've seen, it would be very risky to put Mensa on your resume in engineering, at least in southern California. The work culture here is very political, and a lot of bosses feel threatened by people who are smarter than themselves. Anyone who starts getting recognition for being too smart had better have some amazing social skills to make up for it. Once you stand out as being smart, the insecure people will try to prove you're not so smart after all. And it's very easy for a boss to set an underling up to fail.

Maybe that's just a negative perception on my part.

 

[RDF]

From what I've seen, it would be very risky to put Mensa on your resume in engineering, at least in southern California. The work culture here is very political, and a lot of bosses feel threatened by people who are smarter than themselves. Anyone who starts getting recognition for being too smart had better have some amazing social skills to make up for it. Once you stand out as being smart, the insecure people will try to prove you're not so smart after all. And it's very easy for a boss to set an underling up to fail.

Maybe that's just a negative perception on my part.

Maybe. But in the case you describe, the problem is bigger than whether or not to put a Mensa reference on the resume. The problem then becomes: Would a Mensan want to work in an environment where he has to play dumb just to keep his job? If an insecure boss literally doesn't like intelligent people, then it's probably going to be a "hostile environment" for a Mensan even if he hides his Mensa membership.

Also, what about scholastic honors and titles? Do they hate people who graduated good schools with honors?

 

[redcheerio]

Maybe. But in the case you describe, the problem is bigger than whether or not to put a Mensa reference on the resume. The problem then becomes: Would a Mensan want to work in an environment where he has to play dumb just to keep his job? If an insecure boss literally doesn't like intelligent people, then it's probably going to be a "hostile environment" for a Mensan even if he hides the affiliation.

I think it's a problem in this area of the world. It's disgustingly political here. Even happened at a company that had the smartest people I've ever worked with. Mainly because of one manager, though. Everyone else there was pretty awesome.

Then again, maybe Mensa on a resume would screen out the employers like that. I suspect it would be hard to find a company around here where not a single person would be like that, though.

PS - Not to imply I'm super brilliant or anything, only that the workplace is very political here, and insecure people can get away with a lot of crap because of it. So advertising something like Mensa on your resume might cause big political problems in some places.

 

[RDF]

I think it's a problem in this area of the world. It's disgustingly political here. Even happened at a company that had the smartest people I've ever worked with. Mainly because of one manager, though. Everyone else there was pretty awesome.

Then again, maybe Mensa on a resume would screen out the employers like that. I suspect it would be hard to find a company around here where not a single person would be like that, though.

PS - Not to imply I'm super brilliant or anything, only that the workplace is very political here, and insecure people can get away with a lot of crap because of it.

Well, you know the subejct matter (Engineering in SoCal) better than me.

FWIW, it sounds as though one mainly needs to get one’s foot in the door (get hired), and then it’s just office politics as usual after that. I’ve been in anti-intellectual environments before: I spent seven years in the Marine Corps, and it was often smart not to act too smart around one’s immediate boss. At the time I just wrote it off as another form of office politics.

But then, that’s probably what you meant when you said that intelligent people had better “have some amazing social skills to make up for it.”

Anyway, the point being: Yeah, being too smart can be a liability in some environments. But everyone has their problems. Office politics and kissing the boss's ass is pretty much universal. Even smart people have to suck it up and play those games at times.

 

[redcheerio]

Well, you know the subejct matter (Engineering in SoCal) better than me.

FWIW, it sounds as though one mainly needs to get one’s foot in the door (get hired), and then it’s just office politics as usual after that. I’ve been in anti-intellectual environments before: I spent seven years in the Marine Corps, and it was often smart not to act too smart around one’s immediate boss. At the time I just wrote it off as another form of office politics.

But then, that’s probably what you meant when you said that intelligent people had better “have some amazing social skills to make up for it.”

Anyway, the point being: Yeah, being too smart can be a liability in some environments. But everyone has their problems. Office politics and kissing the boss's ass is pretty much universal. Even smart people have to suck it up and play those games at times.

That's true. I just hate that BS, that's all. Engineering is not supposed to be anti-intellectual, wtf!

By "amazing social skills", I was maintaining the hope <insert praying smilie> that there are other strategies, beyond acting dumb or sucking up, that I haven't figured out yet.

 

[RDF]

That's true. I just hate that BS, that's all. Engineering is not supposed to be anti-intellectual, wtf!

By "amazing social skills", I was maintaining the hope <insert praying smilie> that there are other strategies, beyond acting dumb or sucking up, that I haven't figured out yet.

Lol! Yeah, they use buzzwords like "empowering the employees" and encouraging initiative. But god forbid any of the employees should ever have an independent thought of their own...

 

[redcheerio]

Lol! Yeah, they use buzzwords like "empowering the employees" and encouraging initiative. But god forbid any of the employees should ever have an independent thought of their own...

God forbid!

 

[RDF]

By "amazing social skills", I was maintaining the hope <insert praying smilie> that there are other strategies, beyond acting dumb or sucking up, that I haven't figured out yet.

You could always study up on techniques for "managing upward." See the bolded third-to-last sentence:

The Peter Principle states that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence", meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they cannot work competently. It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book The Peter Principle, a humorous [1] treatise which also introduced the "salutary science of hierarchiology."

The principle holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Eventually they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions. Peter's Corollary states that "in time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out their duties" and adds that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence". "Managing upward" is the concept of a subordinate finding ways to subtly "manage" superiors in order to limit the damage that they end up doing.

This principle can be modelled and has theoretical validity for simulations.[2] However, all of the real-world evidence for it is anecdotal (and often intended to be humorous in nature).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle

 

[redcheerio]

You could always study up on techniques for "managing upward." See the bolded third-to-last sentence:

Perfect, thanks!

 

[mrcockburn]

I kind of wondered. When I get a lot of pushback from someone, it often turns out that they have some prior personal experience with Mensa.

Yeah, the smaller chapters are often ossified and inbred, ruled by greyhairs who have run it one way forever and don't want anyone to challenge them. I was turned off by my first (and second) exposure to Mensa myself. I investigated a chapter in Honolulu and later one in Phoenix and had bad experiences with both. It was like going to a family barbecue with a bunch of cranky grandparents and elderly aunts and uncles. It was only when I was in DC that I found a chapter big enough and active enough that it was worth joining. (And of course I myself was older by then.)

FWIW, the big chapters are making a real effort to reach out to younger people. The greyhairs aren’t going to last forever. The DC chapter has active Generation X and Gen Y SIGs (Special Interest Groups), and the leader (LocSec) of the DC chapter is himself a Gen X-er.

So if you’re younger, then yeah--it may be imperative to seek out one of the bigger chapters or head out to the bigger events: RGs and AGs. The smaller chapters can be a little scary: The people in the small chapters just don’t realize how old and out-of-touch they’ve become.

You totally NAILED it - they were a bunch of greyhairs. At the time, I was 18 (21 now) - and I felt like I was walking in one some strangers' private family reunion (well, one consisting solely of "grands" and "greats", baby boomers and older.

It was located in the boondocks indeed. So yeah, a blonde 18 year old ESFP (with hair slicked back in a ponytail from swimming pool chlorine) walking in on *that*....

Next year I may be moving to NYC, so I might consider giving it another shot.

Weren't you the acid reflux guru in my thread? I suppose Mensans suffer from heartburn in lieu of brain freeze.

 

[RDF]

Next year I may be moving to NYC, so I might consider giving it another shot.

Sounds good. No harm in checking it out. Especially if you’re not familiar with NYC--it would be nice to have some friendly contacts around town.

I’m not familiar with the NYC chapter (GNYM) myself. But it looks like it has a fairly active calendar.

Here is a link for the main calendar of events, with contact data deleted. A lot of these events are going to attended by the Boomer crowd. But I see a group that meets to discuss Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That would be a little bit younger.
http://www.gnym.us.mensa.org/201108.html

And then on the SIG page, there’s a group called Sig X: “For all GNYM twentysomethings and thirtysomethings...” Sometimes the SIGs have their own calendars of events separate from the main calendar.
http://www.gnym.us.mensa.org/sigs.html

So when the time comes, I would start by getting in contact with the Sig X coordinator and seeing if that SIG is still active. (Hit the “Contacts” button on the side.) Even if it’s not, the coordinator can at least tell you which would be the best events to attend on the main calendar (i.e., tell you where the younger members tend to show up).

Weren't you the acid reflux guru in my thread? I suppose Mensans suffer from heartburn in lieu of brain freeze.

Lol! Yeah, my pokey stomach can’t keep up with my high-octane brain.