I'm often confronted with variations on the assertion that Freemasonry is a business networking opportunity. Let me be clear: it's not. But there's a related question to which the answer is more complex, and I think Freemasons don't promote this question enough: is Freemasonry good for your career?
To this, I give an unequivocal "yes". In fact, it's a great career move for many reasons, some of which I won't get into, here, such as the role of self-knowledge in professional life. They're all useful topics, but for now I'll just stick to the simple question of why you might get hired for a job because you're a Freemason.
Now, if you're thinking, "the hiring manager might be a Freemason, and so they'll hire me," then stop right there. Not true. First off, the hiring manager almost certainly isn't a Freemason. Since the 1960s, membership in Freemasonry has declined substantially, and there's no reasonable case to be made that one should expect to run into a fellow Mason at work. There are probably on the order of 100 Freemasons in my city whose work plus residential population is probably around a half a million. That's 1 in every 5,000 people you might run into that are going to be Masons. Good luck with that.
So why, then?
Because the Masonic Lodge is one of the most profoundly impressive leadership training systems in the world, even though far too few people within the Fraternity seem to realize this, or at least the avoid talking about it.
Think about it: you spend somewhere around 7 years (depending on jurisdiction) learning every facet of running the Lodge, from setting up the tables and regalia to organizing the caterers and candidates. Then you spend a year or so actually being the executive management in charge of the Lodge. You have to learn how to work with a Secretary and Treasurer to actually run the business of the Lodge. You have to learn how to manage volunteer labor. You need to learn what works and what doesn't when it comes to getting work out of people.
These are not just relevant skills, they're the kinds of skills that the majority of people will never learn! I know of less comprehensive programs that are entirely based on simulation and classroom work that cost a fortune! But Freemasonry tends to cost less than going to see a movie once a month and gives you a fully rounded experience. Is it draining and demanding? Of course it is, but it will be when you do these things in your professional life, and learning to balance professional and personal demands is yet another part of the lesson.
So that brings us to how you sell yourself on this basis. How do you tell an employer? Well, here's what I wrote up recently to answer that very question:
