How To Get Predictable Interviews After Leaving Vocational Ministry: The 3X Rule for Your Pastor Career Change

Fast Track to More Interviews: Proven Strategies for Leaving Vocational Ministry and Landing Corporate Jobs

How To Get Predictable Interviews After Leaving Vocational Ministry: The 3X Rule for Your Pastor Career Change

Read Time: 4 minutes

LAUNCH YOUR JOB SEARCH

Overview

Welcome to the Ministry To Marketplace Minute! Today, I’m going to introduce you to a concept that I have seen unlock the job searches of hundreds of people transitioning from ministry. We’re going to put some raw data behind the decisions that you make and the actions that you take so that you can know if you’re doing enough of the right things to win. So let’s dive in.

Today's Ministry To Marketplace Minute:

Mindset Shift: Am I doing the right things for my pastor career change?
Strategy Shift: The method of getting a marketplace job from ministry.
Do This Right Now: Evaluating your transition from ministry plan.
Who Will Hire Me?: 5 ministry friendly organizations with jobs for ex-pastors.

Overview

Today's Ministry To Marketplace Minute:

Mindset Shift: Am I doing the right things for my pastor career change?
Strategy Shift: The method of getting a marketplace job from ministry.
Do This Right Now: Evaluating your transition from ministry plan.
Who Will Hire Me?: 5 ministry friendly organizations with jobs for ex-pastors.

🧠 MINDSET SHIFT

How do you know if you’re doing the right things to successfully make a career change as a pastor? This is a two-part question. You need to focus on both the “what” and the “how many.”

In the Ministry To Marketplace Interview Accelerator community, we call these the “Key Actions” that lead to “Key Results.”

Key actions are the actions that, when focused on, will get you the right results rather than spinning your wheels doing the same thing but not seeing results. Here are the 7 Key Actions:

The number of Target Organizations on your list (see the newsletter about how to find organizations that are more likely to hire someone with a ministry background here)
The number of People on your Connections list
The number of Reach-Outs to People Who Know You and Might Help You
The number of Reach-Outs to People Who Don’t Know You Yet and Might Help You
The number of Follow Ups after Reach Outs
The number of Hours Per Week Working a Job Search System (not guessing).
The number of Engagements and Questions you ask someone who knows what they’re doing.

These lead to the 4 Key Results.

Conversations with people who can help you.
Internal Introductions at organizations you want to work for.
Interviews for jobs that fit you and for which you are qualified.
Offer(s) for the job you want.

Notice something about the Key Actions.

It doesn’t include “apply for jobs.” Should you apply for jobs? Yes. But that isn’t a key action. Why?

Because if you apply for a job cold, you have a 1% chance of getting an interview. But if you have an internal introduction, that skyrockets 15X.

How do you know if you’re doing the right things to successfully make a career change as a pastor? This is a two-part question. You need to focus on both the “what” and the “how many.”

In the Ministry To Marketplace Interview Accelerator community, we call these the “Key Actions” that lead to “Key Results.”

Key actions are the actions that, when focused on, will get you the right results rather than spinning your wheels doing the same thing but not seeing results. Here are the 7 Key Actions:

The number of Target Organizations on your list (see the newsletter about how to find organizations that are more likely to hire someone with a ministry background here)
The number of People on your Connections list
The number of Reach-Outs to People Who Know You and Might Help You
The number of Reach-Outs to People Who Don’t Know You Yet and Might Help You
The number of Follow Ups after Reach Outs
The number of Hours Per Week Working a Job Search System (not guessing).
The number of Engagements and Questions you ask someone who knows what they’re doing.

These lead to the 4 Key Results.

Conversations with people who can help you.
Internal Introductions at organizations you want to work for.
Interviews for jobs that fit you and for which you are qualified.
Offer(s) for the job you want.

Notice something about the Key Actions.

It doesn’t include “apply for jobs.” Should you apply for jobs? Yes. But that isn’t a key action. Why?

Because if you apply for a job cold, you have a 1% chance of getting an interview. But if you have an internal introduction, that skyrockets 15X.

♟️ STRATEGY SHIFT

So, how many of these Key Actions should you do? Let’s look at the job search mountain.

The 3X Rule

The job search mountain is a picture of the 3X rule. The 3X rule states that as you move up the mountain of the job search process, you’ll need at least 3 results at one level to move to the next level. I wrote a newsletter explaining the Job Search Mountain in more detail, which will help with more context!

If you want 1 Offer, then you need to get in 3 Final Interviews. If you want 3 Final Interviews, you need to get in 9 Interviews. And so on.

Job Search Levels

There are levels to the job search. It starts with the application, then a phone screen, then a regular interview (maybe more than one), then the final interview, and then an offer.

The problem with this and the 3X rule is the 1% chance when applying cold. I don’t think anyone wants to apply for thousands of jobs to get 27 phone screens.

There are levels to the job search. It starts with the application, then a phone screen, then a regular interview (maybe more than one), then the final interview, and then an offer.

The problem with this and the 3X rule is the 1% chance when applying cold. I don’t think anyone wants to apply for thousands of jobs to get 27 phone screens.

Which is why we need a different strategy. Insert Key Actions.

With Key Actions, we aren’t focused on applications; we are focused on introductions that come from productive, targeted conversations.

And so the mountain changes: instead of applications, we start with reach-outs to people on your list of connections.

Which is why we need a different strategy. Insert Key Actions.

With Key Actions, we aren’t focused on applications; we are focused on introductions that come from productive, targeted conversations.

And so the mountain changes: instead of applications, we start with reach-outs to people on your list of connections.

Target Organizations are the Key

When you have a list of Target Organizations, the conversations change from “Do you know anyone hiring?” to “I’m interested in these organizations.”

That is incredibly more effective because now people know exactly how to help you.

In this case, when you get a strong introduction, oftentimes you bypass the phone screen (though you might do it as a formality) and go straight into the interview.

When you have a list of Target Organizations, the conversations change from “Do you know anyone hiring?” to “I’m interested in these organizations.”

That is incredibly more effective because now people know exactly how to help you.

In this case, when you get a strong introduction, oftentimes you bypass the phone screen (though you might do it as a formality) and go straight into the interview.

Now the math looks good. 27 strong introductions lead to 1 offer.

So your job now is to evaluate two things.

Evaluate your strategy. Are you doing the 7 key actions? What do you need to add to your job search? Maybe more importantly, what do you need to take away?
Evaluate your numbers. Are you playing the 1% game or the 3X rule game? Are you aiming for applications or aiming for introductions that lead to interviews?

Want to go deeper on this strategy? I wrote a newsletter on the Ministry To Marketplace method that has helped 102+ (at this point) people make successful transitions from ministry into the marketplace.

Now the math looks good. 27 strong introductions lead to 1 offer.

So your job now is to evaluate two things.

Evaluate your strategy. Are you doing the 7 key actions? What do you need to add to your job search? Maybe more importantly, what do you need to take away?
Evaluate your numbers. Are you playing the 1% game or the 3X rule game? Are you aiming for applications or aiming for introductions that lead to interviews?

QUICK WINS

✅ DO THIS RIGHT NOW

Are you getting the Key Results from the Mindset Section?
Are you doing the Key Actions from the Mindset Section?
Evaluate what your numbers look like and redesign your strategy.

Are you getting the Key Results from the Mindset Section?
Are you doing the Key Actions from the Mindset Section?
Evaluate what your numbers look like and redesign your strategy.

🚀 FROM THE COACHING GROUP

I’m consistently getting interviews every week… meeting with a VP at one of my target orgs. Honestly, I expect it to materialize into something meaningful soon.

🤝 WHO WILL HIRE ME?: 5 ministry friendly organizations with jobs for ex-pastors.

Because of the time sensitive nature of job postings, we post these in the newsletter only.

Get the newsletter, along with 744+ others, every Friday morning.

Subscribe here.

Because of the time sensitive nature of job postings, we post these in the newsletter only.

Get the newsletter, along with 743+ others, every Friday morning.

Subscribe here.

Rooting for you! 🚀

Todd Linder

Founder and Head Coach // Connect with me on LinkedIn

Todd Linder

Founder and Head Coach // Connect with me on LinkedIn

How we can help you:

The Ministry To Marketplace Interview Accelerator: Join 102+ others that have successfully transitioned from ministry into marketplace jobs that value their experience. The Interview Accelerator will give you our proven step by step process, coaching, and community to getting more interviews for jobs that value your ministry experience and support your family. Let's hop on a call!
The Ministry To Marketplace Quiz: Join 600+ other ministry to marketplace job seekers that have taken our 60-second (FREE) quiz to find out what is hindering your job search. You'll get a video and PDF results report straight to your inbox that will identify where you are, and what you need to focus on right now to get results. Take the FREE quiz here.

The Ministry To Marketplace Interview Accelerator: Join 102+ others that have successfully transitioned from ministry into marketplace jobs that value their experience. The Interview Accelerator will give you our proven step by step process, coaching, and community to getting more interviews for jobs that value your ministry experience and support your family. Let's hop on a call!
The Ministry To Marketplace Quiz: Join 600+ other ministry to marketplace job seekers that have taken our 60-second (FREE) quiz to find out what is hindering your job search. You'll get a video and PDF results report straight to your inbox that will identify where you are, and what you need to focus on right now to get results. Take the FREE quiz here.

Was this forwarded to you? Get this newsletter into your inbox, along with 743+ others, every Friday morning. Subscribe here.

Was this forwarded to you? Get this newsletter into your inbox, along with 744+ others, every Friday morning. Subscribe here.