How To Stand Out In The Job Search As A Former Pastor: The Exact Script To Reach Out Effectively

Read Time: 4 minutes

Overview

Welcome to the Ministry To Marketplace Minute! In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how to stand out as a former pastor in the sea of candidates and the exact video script that we teach our clients for reaching out to a hiring manager when you apply for a job. Let’s dive in!

Today's Ministry To Marketplace Minute:

Mindset Shift: Career advice for applications as a former pastor.
Strategy Shift: How to stand out in your ministry career change.
Do This Right Now: Best practice for applying to jobs.
Who Will Hire Me?: 5 ministry friendly organizations with jobs for ex-pastors

Overview

Today's Ministry To Marketplace Minute:

Mindset Shift: Career advice for applications as a former pastor.
Strategy Shift: How to stand out in your ministry career change.
Do This Right Now: Best practice for applying to jobs.
Who Will Hire Me?: 5 ministry friendly organizations with jobs for ex-pastors

LAUNCH YOUR JOB SEARCH

🧠 MINDSET SHIFT: Career advice for applications as a former pastor.

You don’t want to be in ministry anymore but this is what you’re hearing:

“The job search is more competitive than it has even been!”
“I saw a position with over 2,000 applications!”

I’ve heard this from others too.
Recruiters, career coaches, job seekers lamenting how hard it is to get an interview. It is just so competitive, right?

And I’m here to tell you, that’s simply not true.
What is true is that the job search is more saturated than ever.

More applicants.
Not necessarily better candidates.

While you’re transitioning from ministry in a sea of candidates, you need to stand out.

Don’t do what everyone else is doing.

Don’t cold apply.
Don’t tweak your resume using ChatGPT only. (I wrote about that one here)
Don’t even send a generic message to the hiring manager.

Don’t just be an application or a 1 page document on their screen.

Be different. Be yourself.
And the way to be yourself, is to present yourself - via video.

Yes, I am telling you that you need to send videos of yourself to people you have never met.

You don’t want to be in ministry anymore but this is what you’re hearing:

“The job search is more competitive than it has even been!”
“I saw a position with over 2,000 applications!”

I’ve heard this from others too.
Recruiters, career coaches, job seekers lamenting how hard it is to get an interview. It is just so competitive, right?

And I’m here to tell you, that’s simply not true.
What is true is that the job search is more saturated than ever.

More applicants.
Not necessarily better candidates.

While you’re transitioning from ministry in a sea of candidates, you need to stand out.

Don’t do what everyone else is doing.

Don’t cold apply.
Don’t tweak your resume using ChatGPT only. (I wrote about that one here)
Don’t even send a generic message to the hiring manager.

Don’t just be an application or a 1 page document on their screen.

Be different. Be yourself.
And the way to be yourself, is to present yourself - via video.

Yes, I am telling you that you need to send videos of yourself to people you have never met.

♟️ STRATEGY SHIFT: How to stand out in your ministry career change.

Why should I send a video of myself when applying?

For every introduction, you should be sending a video of yourself.

People love watching videos, especially short form video.
Why do you think Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, now even LinkedIn have adopted this as the main form of consumption?

People prefer watching videos.
And much more than whatever boring thing they were working on.

For every introduction, you should be sending a video of yourself.

People love watching videos, especially short form video.
Why do you think Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, now even LinkedIn have adopted this as the main form of consumption?

People prefer watching videos.
And much more than whatever boring thing they were working on.

But who do I send the video to?

Everyone you connect with. There are at least 7 different types of people you should be sending connection messages to with video.

But in this newsletter, we’re talking about sending a video to the hiring manager when you apply.

Why the hiring manager?

The hiring manager is the person who ultimately will make the hiring decision.

In many cases that is

the person you would work for or
the boss of the person you work for.

Either way, sending them a short, less than 2 minute video of yourself, skyrockets you to the top 5% of candidates.

Everyone you connect with. There are at least 7 different types of people you should be sending connection messages to with video.

But in this newsletter, we’re talking about sending a video to the hiring manager when you apply.

Why the hiring manager?

The hiring manager is the person who ultimately will make the hiring decision.

In many cases that is

the person you would work for or
the boss of the person you work for.

Either way, sending them a short, less than 2 minute video of yourself, skyrockets you to the top 5% of candidates.

But what do I say?

Let’s break it down.

When you apply, you want the hiring manager to get a few things.

Know who you are and see your personality. This automatically makes you stand out.
Why you are interested in the company and the role. There should be a combination of prior experience, a reason for transitioning, and a personal connection to something about the organization.
What value you bring to the table for the problem that the organization is trying to solve for with that position you are applying for.

Not only will this help to show your personality, but also make you a person. That is a key component of helping someone to overcome any objections they might have to your ministry experience.

We have a whole list of “Copy and Paste Message Templates” that our coaching program utilizes to get into more conversations that lead to interviews. I’m going to give you one of the scripts here.

The video script.

Here’s how we encourage our clients to format their video script:
(if you want an example, here’s a video of me doing it)

“Hi! My name is [your name]. I'm applying for the [role] at [company].

I have [x number of years] years of experience in [similar industry, same type of work, or similar type of work] beginning with [one of your first jobs] to [your most recent job with this experience] where I have focused on [1 or 2 of your best bullets from your resume for this job type]. [Sentence about why what this company does connects you to personally].

I look forward to hearing back from you!”

Send that video through

A LinkedIn message using the phone app (it allows up to 2 minutes for a video if you are already connected)
A LinkedIn message using Loom (if sending through a note on a connection request)
Or through email. I also advise Loom for this as well.

*Loom is a free video recording tool on your computer that allows you to send the video as a link rather than having to upload a file.

And that’s it.
Nothing fancy. Just connecting the dots for them.

P.S. Make sure that you are in a space that is comfortable for you. I personally like sitting at my desk or doing the video on a walk around the neighborhood

Let’s break it down.

When you apply, you want the hiring manager to get a few things.

Know who you are and see your personality. This automatically makes you stand out.
Why you are interested in the company and the role. There should be a combination of prior experience, a reason for transitioning, and a personal connection to something about the organization.
What value you bring to the table for the problem that the organization is trying to solve for with that position you are applying for.

Not only will this help to show your personality, but also make you a person. That is a key component of helping someone to overcome any objections they might have to your ministry experience.

The video script.
Here’s how we encourage our clients to format their video script:
(if you want an example, here’s a video of me doing it)

“Hi! My name is [your name]. I'm applying for the [role] at [company].

I look forward to hearing back from you!”

Send that video through

A LinkedIn message using the phone app (it allows up to 2 minutes for a video if you are already connected)
A LinkedIn message using Loom (if sending through a note on a connection request)
Or through email. I also advise Loom for this as well.

*Loom is a free video recording tool on your computer that allows you to send the video as a link rather than having to upload a file.

And that’s it.
Nothing fancy. Just connecting the dots for them.

P.S. Make sure that you are in a space that is comfortable for you. I personally like sitting at my desk or doing the video on a walk around the neighborhood

QUICK WINS

✅ DO THIS RIGHT NOW: Best practice for applying to jobs.

Have a position that you want to apply for?

Get your resume ready and matched to the job description (see How to Translate Your Ministry Experience for Corporate Jobs part 2)
Find the hiring manager, likely LinkedIn or their company website will be the best place.
Once you apply, send them your intro video in an email or LinkedIn message.

Have a position that you want to apply for?

Get your resume ready and matched to the job description (see How to Translate Your Ministry Experience for Corporate Jobs part 2)
Find the hiring manager, likely LinkedIn or their company website will be the best place.
Once you apply, send them your intro video in an email or LinkedIn message.

🚀 FROM THE COACHING GROUP

I heard back from HR this morning about a phone screen I applied for this weekend! Thanks to Todd Linder for the nudge and connection.

🤝 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 533+ 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 463+ others, every Friday morning.

Subscribe here.

Rooting for you! 🚀

Todd Linder

Founder and Head Coach // Connect with me on LinkedIn

How we can help you:

The Ministry To Marketplace Coaching Program: Join 85 others that have successfully transitioned from ministry into marketplace jobs that value their experience. Our coaching program will give you our proven step by step process to getting a job faster in the marketplace, weekly coaching calls and check ins, and community with others on the same journey as you. Book a call here.
The Ministry To Marketplace Quiz: Join 427+ 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.
Want to hire someone with a ministry background? We always have 20-30 people in our coaching group who are hire ready! Email me (todd@launchpoint.co) with a link to the job description and I'll personally take a look in our coaching community for someone that fits, make sure their resume is lined up, and connect you with them directly. (completely FREE)

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