The Best Tool To Change Careers As A Former Pastor: How To Use LinkedIn Better Than 90% Of People

♟️ STRATEGY SHIFT:  Leveraging LinkedIn to make your pastor career change.

If you really want to leverage ALL of LinkedIn to maximize your job search, here are 5 simple ways that you can do it.

1. Research new job types.

LI’ve talked about finding job types in two different newsletters, Best Jobs for Pastors: What Jobs Can Former Pastors Do After Leaving Ministry? and 6 Steps to Finding the Right Corporate Job Title After Leaving Ministry. But here’s another way you can do some narrowing:

Instead of assuming you want to be in "Customer Success," search for the functions of the jobs you want.

Go to search bar > hit enter > click "People," > click "All Filters" > scroll down to "Title" > type in a generic word like "sales," or "learning," or "customer."

Now you can see people who work in those jobs, but in titles you may not know about.

View Walkthrough Here

2. Find organizations that fit your values.

Instead of going with your list of the 15 organizations you know about, find ones that are doing great work and are really similar!

Go to the search bar > type in the organization's name you want to work for > click into their company page.

On the right-hand side of the screen, you'll see two sections:

"Pages people also viewed" and "People also follow."

Those will be similar organizations right there! (you can also expand the list by clicking "Show all")

View Walkthrough Here

You can also find “Ministry Friendly” companies through the method I outlined in Who Will Hire Me As A Former Pastor? A Step By Step Guide To Finding Ministry Friendly Companies.

3. Figure out what should be on your resume.

Don't know what to put on your resume?

Find someone in the job that you want with a background similar to yours.

Go to the search bar and hit enter > click "People" > click "All Filters" > scroll down to "Past Company" and type in a few organizations that are similar to the one you work for > scroll to Title and do what you did for number 1 above.

View Walkthrough Here

Now you'll be able to see people who have worked at the same (or similar) ministry you do, who also have jobs you're interested in.

Open their LinkedIn profiles, scroll down to their experience, and see how they explained what they did.

There are plenty of articles I’ve written about this, you can go deeper on in the blog.

4. Expand your network with people you know.

Don't know who you should connect with for your job search?

Find people that you already know, even if you haven't talked to them in a while!

Go to the search bar > hit enter > click "People," > click the "2nd" button.

View Walkthrough Here

Now you can see who the people you are already connected with are connected to.

Likely, many of them will already be people you know, just not yet connected with on LinkedIn.

5. Engage with people who don't know you yet.

Are there people that you don't know but would benefit from connecting with?

The best way to engage with them is to comment on their posts.

Not everyone posts, but engaging with those who do matters!

Go to the search bar > hit enter > click "Posts" > click "All Filters" > scroll to "Author company" and type in the organizations you want to work for > click "Sort by" and choose latest.

View Walkthrough Here

Now you will see everyone who posts at that organization and the most recent posts.

Time to comment and start helping people get to know you!

You could do all of this in just 15 minutes every day, and I guarantee you’ll learn more about:

1. What job type you should be looking for

2. What words and phrases you need to be using to communicate your experience

3. Where you should be looking for jobs

4. Who you should be connecting with to get introductions