Translating Ministry Experience Into the Language of Training

So you want to apply for a job in training and you want to know how to translate your ministerial resume into the language of training. Here's some (hopefully) helpful tips.

Begin with research. To translate, you first have to learn the language. Do so here: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/sat.html

The material available for free at that link will teach you about the ADDIE process of curriculum development. This is also known as Instructional Systems Design. Having read and studied that material, you can now claim familiarity with ADDIE and ISD in your skill set.

Structuring Your Resume
You always want to structure a resume so that you highlight what you want to draw peoples' attention to. For example, new college grads put their eduction first, right at the top, because that's their biggest achievement. On the other hand, if you're a good 10 years out of school, you for sure want to put education last.

Most people include three basic parts to their resume: Summary (or Objective), Experience and Education. So let me ask you, which one of these do you want to highlight? If you highlight your education, most employers will think it's irrelevant and they'll immediately become disinterested in your resume. They may finish looking at it, but you've gotten off on the wrong foot. If you highlight your experience, you'll probably have the same problem. And if you highlight your summary, sort of like your resume's thesis statement, you're just highlighting everything you've already determined you don't want to highlight.

In the case of a minister/licentiate/seminary student attempting to cross over into a new career such as training, I have a slightly unconventional recommendation for you.

Get rid of the summary. Cut it out altogether. You don't need it because it won't help you.

Replace the summary with a skills list. Literally start with the word "Skills" followed by a colon and underline it. Then on the next line, just start adding in your skills and separate them with commas. Like this...

Skills:
Microsoft Office, critical thinking, public speaking, writing, linguistic analysis, ADDIE process (since you clicked the link above and read it), adult learning, classroom management, committee management, collaboration, leadership, client relations, ethics, editing, presentation creation, project management, training, masters degree

Something like that. And you'll want to put them in order of relevance so that the most significant ones come first. This may be different depending on what job you're trying to get. Make sure to include as much as you possibly can in this list. Any skills you have, regardless of your proficiency, belong here. It's ok if they're overwhelmed (which is synonymous with impressed in this context).

Anyway, think about what this does. It gets right to the point. Your experience and education are significant. But it's a lot of work to get people to really, truly understand that right? So don't ask them to climb that mountain. Start right at the top of the mountain. What are they going to figure out about you if they can get past the whole ministry confusion? Your skill set is what they're actually looking for anyway. Don't play hard to get. Give them what they want right up front. Then you'll simply spend the rest of the ink in your resume justifying and supporting the claims you make in your skill set.

After your skills, put your experience first. If you're fresh out of seminary, put your education first, making sure to include dates. Avoid large gaps in your dates. It's ok if the dates aren't too specific, but be prepared that some might become suspicious at this. If you were unemployed for a year after seminary but you were studying for licensure exams, don't put unemployed or leave a gap. Add this time as an item in your experience and include dates. Call it under care of presbytery or something.

Bullets
Use bullets to say what you were up to when you had that job or were engaged in that activity. Keep it very concise and simple, using as few words as possible. Like this:

Under Care of Presbytery            (3/2010 - 9/2010)

• Conducting licensure exams
• Attended meetings of local/regional/national governance boards

You may be a little concerned to put that on your resume. But it's vastly preferred to leaving a gap or saying unemployed. If you were a student, you can put student if you want, but this is why you put dates on your education.

I've looked at resumes before and conducted interviews. I asked about a gap and it turned out to be a period of unemployment resulting from the candidate's inability to pass the (several months long) background check. He began working for the company before the check was completed, and when he didn't pass, they let him go. Experienced interviewers will always ask about these things.

But they won't even ask about what I suggested above. They have no idea what a licensure exam is, or a Presbytery for that matter, but it sure sounds very involved. And it took 6 months! If they do ask, you can just begin to describe the licensure process, and after 3 sentences or so, they'll be overwhelmed and impressed enough that you can move on to the next thing.

Specific Tips

Ok, down to the nitty gritty. Here's some specific tips on how to word those experience bullets.

• Use the language of ADDIE (see link above)
• You didn't write sermons or Sunday school lessons - you wrote lesson plans, you developed curriculum
• It's not a session/consistory/whatever - it's a governance board
• It's not a presbytery, it's a regional governance body
• You've used sophisticated computer software (Accordance, BibleWorks, Logos) to conduct complex academic and linguistic searches to aid in historical and grammatical analysis of ancient texts in multiple languages
• You conducted textual analysis of ancient texts in multiple languages
• You translated ancient texts from multiple languages into English based on grammatical, historical, cultural, linguistic analysis, consulting cutting edge software and the latest modern scholarship
• As a pastor, you can say that you moderated a session chaired a committee that oversaw a $150k annual budget (or whatever it was - numbers in your resume are always a plus)
• Use the word leadership a lot - helps you come across as strong and confident
• You regularly contributed thought leadership at meetings of local/regional/national governance boards (if you ever gave a speech at presbytery - or if not, silence can be thought leadership too)
• For education, be sure to include that your seminary degree involved 100+ credit hours (typical masters degree is 32)
• Use Calibri font because it's easier to read (yes, I know this isn't Calibri)
• Start each bullet with a nice, strong, main verb from the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Definitely be able to talk about Bloom's Taxonomy in any training job. Google "Bloom's Taxonomy verbs" to find a list of verbs appropriate to each level of the taxonomy.
• Don't feel constrained to one page - that's just not a rule anymore. But don't try to fill it up with a lot of words either. Be concise. If you need the space, use it, but only if you need it. The longer it is, the less likely someone will read it carefully, if at all.
• Don't try to hide that you had some horrible minimum wage job. There's no shame in taking whatever work you can find when going through a difficult time.

So that should be about it. Send your resume along with a pain letter. Send enough of these, and you'll get a call back.

One more thing
When asked why you left the ministry, just say simply that you left voluntarily. In Christian circles, we appreciate honesty and being vulnerable and confessing weakness, but not so in the world. Obviously you can't lie, but you don't have to offer the whole story either. You can just say that you decided you needed a change or that the ministry wasn't for you. No one will want to ask more. If they ask why you left, it's most likely out of genuine curiosity, not to quell their suspicions. And if they are suspicious, then they'll just want to know that you didn't go to jail for molesting a kid or something. So as long as you say something that's not very interesting or revealing and assures them you didn't go to jail, their question will be sufficiently answered. I mean, most people can't understand why you'd want to be a pastor in the first place. Walking away from it is something that actually makes more sense to them.

Do NOT worry that they're going to call your old church and they're going to say something that ruins your chance of getting the job. Pretend you're an unbeliever. Would you want to make that phone call? Not only do they just not want to, but they'd probably also be afraid you'd sue them and the company for prying into your religious beliefs and practices with the intent to discriminate against you.

No need to include references.

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