If you are on your way to college, or are in college and have not entered the Greek System, you should consider joining a fraternity or sorority since they can help you impress a potential employer in the future. In many cases, joining a fraternity or sorority can be more important of a choice than what classes to take each semester.
Many fraternities and sororities will push the fact that many successful people in the business world passed through their doors since their establishment in the Greek System. Many college students believe that this is simply a ploy to encourage membership, and a worthless incentive for joining a fraternity or sorority. Take it from someone who is a former member of a fraternity, and a current business advisor, that this belief is further from the truth.
Whenever I am hired by a company to advise them on their hiring practices, one of the first questions that I ask is, “Do you give higher consideration to people that were fraternity or sorority members in college?” Most of the successful, and larger, companies state that they do. I have found that unsuccessful, and smaller, companies do not. I will then explain the benefits that former members of the Greek System can brag about.
By joining a fraternity or sorority, a college student not only opens themselves up to a new group of friends, he or she also is opened up to a mentoring system that has been perfected over the last hundred years. This is because most fraternities and sororities have mentoring programs set up to help new members with the transition to college life, and paths to achieving better grades (source).
Most national chapters of fraternities and sororities require houses to hold certain grade point averages that are higher than the national average for college students. Many of these national chapters will even go so far as to cut off money that is supplied to these houses if that grade point average is not met. Houses under these national chapters will do everything they can to make sure that this average is met, or passed.
A worker that can be mentored is a very valuable asset to a company. The company can then mold that worker into a machine that is able to exceed expectations and move up the ladder quicker. Most students that have not considered joining a fraternity or sorority never experience a high level of mentoring during their college career, and are thus not familiar with it once they enter the workforce.
Also, I point our to employers that joining a fraternity or sorority usually also requires community service (source). Most national chapters require houses to perform a certain amount of community service each year. This community service goes a long way in making a well-rounded college student. A few hours of working with Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross, the Peace Corp, or a soup kitchen can go a long way in humbling a young mind.
I also point out to employers that after joining a fraternity or sorority, a college student is opened up to a large group of contacts that he or she can gain valuable information from. Many houses have successful alumni visit on a regular basis. Most alumni members will be happy to share business information and tricks with the college students that remind them of themselves at that age.
There are lessons that I learned from fraternity alumni that I still remember to this day. Many of the sayings that they used are as familiar to me today as if they had been said a few days ago. I should point out that I was a fraternity member back in the days when Dan Quayle jokes were still socially relevant and new.
It should also be pointed out that many of the contacts that a college student will gain after joining a fraternity or sorority can sometimes get him or her a job in the future. I have come across many cases where a fraternity or sorority alumni has helped a college graduate from his or here former house get a job with the former’s company.
After joining a fraternity or sorority, a college student is required to take at least one oath to protect the secrets of the organization. They are given a mental list of issues, chants, and traditions that should never be brought out into the light. Most fraternity and sorority members state that they go throughout their entire college career without sharing the secrets of their chosen organization.
I have never met an employer that was not concerned about employees who shared company secrets. Every company looks over their books constantly to see who could keep their secrets safe from competitors. They usually do not have to look further than those employees that had considered joining in a fraternity or sorority in college. These employers know that these employees already have had practice with keeping secret.
There are some religious affiliations that prevent their members from joining a fraternity or sorority. This is because there are prohibitions of membership in any organizations that keep secrets from the general populace. Most of these religious organizations, though, do not have any issue with a college student joining the fraternal organizations that are set up for those with good grades, or non-denominational religious groups on college campuses that use the Greek lettering system. These organizations still hold the same weight on an application.
Nine times out of ten, my clients that did not give extra consideration to those applicants that had been fraternity or sorority members in the past, chance their policy immediately. I have heard back from many of these companies later that they had found that I was right. They realize now that joining a fraternity or sorority in college is a great step towards a college student’s future.