Do Pastors Need More Education To Leave Vocational Ministry for Corporate Jobs? Debunking the “More Education” Myth

♟️ STRATEGY SHIFT: Ministry to marketplace is about framing functions.

Experience matters more than education. A lot more.

The question you shouldn’t be asking isn’t, “What degrees or certifications do I need to be considered for this job?”

The question should be, “What experience and real world education do I have that functionally qualify me for this job?” 

In short, do you know how to do the core parts of the job or not, and have you already achieved the results the company is looking for?

Functional Experience and Education

More and more business leaders recognize proven experience more than education. Elon Musk (love him or hate him), Tim Cook, and the founder of 1800-Got-Junk? all agree.

College is nice, but when it comes to a job you could learn how to do on YouTube or in your mom’s basement, or just from doing it in another organization - the degrees matter less and less.

Sure, a doctor, lawyer - do the degree. Marketing, sales, operations. That’s hands-on stuff.

What Do I Mean By Functions

When I say “functional experience,” here’s what I mean.

There are about 192 functions that are common across all jobs in the U.S.

Yes, including all ministry jobs.

And there is a lot of overlap between these jobs. Yes, including ministry jobs.

So that means that functionally, you have likely done multiple different jobs in the corporate environment in your ministry career, but the functions might have been arranged differently. That can make looking for job types confusing.

As a worship pastor, you might be 

• Responsible for mentoring younger worship leaders

• Choosing set lists

• Making sure that the right things are on stage, the right people are at rehearsals, and everyone has the right equipment. 

• On top of that, you probably interviewed band members.

Functionally, those responsibilities could show up in this way:

• Mentorship exists in training or management jobs

• Choosing set lists exists in event planning or office management jobs

• Right things, right people, and right equipment exist in project management and logistics jobs

• Interviewing exists in talent acquisition and recruiter jobs

So really, functionally, you have done major aspects of these jobs. You just have to dissect a little bit.

We have our Career Compass assessment, which actually does this for you and gives a list of job titles that fit your experience, skills and wiring in the Interview Accelerator.

What About Certifications?

This is a tricky one. Especially when it comes to certifications like the SHRM, PMP, or Scrum/Agile. 

Many job descriptions will say, “qualifications preferred” and list these. Some might say, “required qualifications” and list some of these.

From spending time on the HR side, read what I’m about to say very carefully and take it to heart:

Job descriptions are a wish list, not a 100% requirement list.

In the Interview Accelerator, we have a tool that scores resumes based on their alignment with job descriptions. 

We suggest 90% alignment to get an interview. And guess what?
Most of the time, that resume gets an interview! (There are some other factors which you can read about in this newsletter here: 15X Your Interview Chances After Leaving Vocational Ministry)

**So here’s the takeaway for certifications:**

If you can’t explain how your experience aligns without the certification, the certification won’t help you get the job.

It will be a colossal waste of time and money.

If you can explain the alignment of your experience really well to which you’re already getting deep into the interview process but not converting to final interviews, a certification can make you more competitive.