Should Mensa Membership Be Included on a Resume if You Already Have Strong Academics?

Hiring bubble: Who's hiring?
1

Curious to hear the community’s perspective on this

If a candidate already has strong academic credentials (e.g. high GPA, or competitive test scores), is it still worthwhile to list Mensa membership on the resume?

Personally, I view Mensa as a test-based credential similar in spirit to standardized exams like the SAT, GMAT, or GRE, since it’s essentially a measure of cognitive ability validated through testing.

If that’s the case, shouldn’t it be a job seeker’s responsibility to list all formal credentials, especially those that provide additional data points on aptitude or analytical ability, even if the resume already demonstrates academic strength?

That said, I’ve also heard that mentioning Mensa might be perceived as boastful or even a sign of poor social awareness, especially in professional settings like finance or consulting.

Would recruiters or hiring managers actually view it that way? Or does it depend on how it’s presented (for instance, under a “Test Scores & Certifications” section rather than “Achievements”)?

Would love to hear honest feedback from hiring managers, recruiters and bankers on how they perceive Mensa mentions in finance/IB/PE resumes.

2

I would leave it out, I think more often than not it’s not going to make a good impression

2 Likes
3

Scenario 1)
“This guy* believes he’s smarter than us, I don’t want him.”
(unconscious thought, desperately suppressed: “This guy is much smarter than us, he’ll make us look stupid. I don’t want him”)

Scenario 2) (the interviewer is a member of Mensa) “Finally, a buddy I can relate with. The job is yours”

*other genders are available.

2 Likes
4

Define “social awareness” as a buzzword.

At least to me, it reads as “anxious fear of being perceived as anything other than utterly conformist”.

Although yes, I’d argue including one’s own IQ score in a resume feels like very distasteful.

1 Like
5

Depends on if you actually used the membership for anything. if you got involved in networking events or contributed to its newsletters or anything like that, it’s absolutely worth mentioning.

If you just joined it for the sake of joining it (i.e. what I did) then it’s probably not worth including. I never had any success mentioning it on my CV, nor did it ever come up in any interviews.

2 Likes
6

There is nothing to be gained from this, apart from signalling that you have the sort insecurities that mean you like to solve these tests to prove a point.

1 Like
7

If you just joined it for the sake of joining it (i.e. what I did) then it’s probably not worth including. I never had any success mentioning it on my CV

You see OP, this above is the blueprint on how to pull it off. Mensa on your CV, I mean.

Observe carefully how Greg12 managed to disclose to us his Mensa membership - hence his credential of high cognitive ability - almost as a side effect while replying to your own question. And with the obligatory, performative false modesty (“I joined just for the sake of joining it but too lazy to participate..”, “didn’t lead to anything anyway..” etc).

Days from his reply was posted you of course won’t remember its contents, but the fleeting mention of Greg12’s Mensa membership, that will stick 100%.

This is actually a great example on how to conduct the covert but relentless struggle for status, lurking behind sanitised corporate facades and compassionate Newspeak.

In fact, and in spite of whatever Scott Meyers may say, side-effects are functionally great, in that they are a very efficient way to get you where you want in banking life.

Cycling back to your request: Greg12’s indirect advice, if I interpreted it correctly, would consist in citing your Mensa membership as a side-effect of other items in your resume. Make it look as some kind of negligible detail, thrown in there by chance.

For instance, in the Hobbies & Leisure section of your CV you could go

  • Hobbies: dinosaurs (triceratops, stegosaurus), fishing (spend quality time with my cat), pop psychology & psychometrics (Nassim Taleb, Mensa membership), backgammon, lorem ipsum, etc

or perhaps the Languages part of you resume could read

  • Languages: English (fluency ascertained at the University of American Samoa), Laotian (can speak but cannot read), Swahili (can read but cannot speak), Slovakian (passed Mensa admission test), Old Church Slavonic (can’t be too difficult to learn coming from Slovak), Horse Whispering, etc

You catch my drift.

4 Likes
8

May I congratulate you on your high status response.

1 Like
9

This might be the most entertaining (and oddly insightful) career advice I’ve read in a while. And I have to say, “Horse-whispering” genuinely made me laugh. 10/10 on delivery. I’ll take notes on the “side-effect” strategy.

3 Likes
10

Yes, he had me at “Scott Meyers” (now retired and sorely missed)

3 Likes