How Long Does It Take to Get a Corporate Job After Ministry? Timelines, Trends & Realistic Expectations for Former Pastors

Read Time: 3.5 minutes

Overview

Welcome to the Ministry To Marketplace Minute! In today’s episode, we’re talking about how long you should expect the job search process to take you. This one is metrics heavy, lots of timelines and data to help you make good decisions and set expectations. Let’s dive in.


Today's Ministry To Marketplace Minute:

  • Mindset Shift: Job search is a marathon, not a sprint.

  • Strategy Shift: How long will it take to transition from ministry to secular

  • Do This Right Now: When do you need to make your transition by?

  • Who Will Hire Me?: 5 ministry friendly organizations with jobs for ex-pastors

LAUNCH YOUR JOB SEARCH

🧠 MINDSET SHIFT: Job search is a marathon, not a sprint.

A mentor once told me, "Low expectations = high joy." And while I haven't tested that in every area of life, this for sure is true in the timing of the job search.


The job search is a marathon. Not a sprint.


The setting of expectations for timing is critical to your mental and emotional health, as well as conserving your energy.


More important than you think...


This issue was inspired by a LinkedIn post I made about 6 weeks ago about how long it takes to get a job coming from ministry.


I wrote out a few trends that I have seen for common jobs that people transition into coming out of ministry.


(heads up, they are probably longer than you think).


And I've had more conversations with people who are exhausted and actually devastated by how long the process has taken them.


So before you dive in head first and expect to get a job in the next 60 days, let's do a reset of expectations

♟️ STRATEGY SHIFT: How long will it take to transition from ministry to secular?

How long will the job search take me?

Expectation of how long it takes to get a job is critical to planning. 


If you hope to get a job 3 months from now, and it comes in 4 months, you'll be disappointed.


If you hope to get a job 6 months from now, and it comes in 4 months, you'll be elated!


So it is important to take a realistic look at two important timelines:

  1. When do you ideally want to get a job by?

  2. When is the last possible date you need to get a new job by?


And then compare them to reality.


If you Google, "how long does it take to get a job in 2024?" (2024 will have more complete data than 2025), you'll see that it can take anywhere from 3, 5, or even up to 8 months to get a new job, depending on factors like 

  • how much you want to make 

  • the type of job

  • the availability of the job based on your location

  • if you have that experience or not.


A recruiter friend of mine shared with me that a good expectation is that you should allocate between 1 month of job searching for every $10,000 you want to make on your salary.


So here's the math.


You need to make $100,000 in your next job? 


$100,000 / $10,000 = 10


10 x 1 month = 10 months of job searching!


Those numbers might be painful, but set your expectations accordingly and you might actually be able to get there faster. 


Side note, if you see $100K and you're thinking, "holy cow, is that even possible??"


I wrote a newsletter a couple of weeks ago on how much someone with a ministry background can make in a marketplace job.

Can I speed up the process?

The short answer is, yes.


In the first newsletter I ever wrote, I covered the 10 step method that we use in our coaching program to help people get jobs that value their ministry experience and support their family, faster.


There is a better way to search for a job.


The numbers speak for themselves.


Applying cold online gives you a 1-3% chance of getting an interview... per application.


Those are bad odds.


But getting an introduction to the hiring manager makes you 15x more likely to get an interview.


1-3% or 15-45%?


More work on the front end, for sure.


But way better (and faster results on the back end).


So let’s talk about trends for specific job types


Here are the trends I'm seeing for specific job types.


If you want to transition into one of the following jobs, here are some expectations you can realistically set for yourself

• Entry level sales: 2-3 months

• Account Exec: 4-6 months

• Operations: 4-7 months

• Project Management: 4-8 months

• Employee onboarding: 6-9 months

• Marketing or Communications: 5-9 months

• Creative roles: 5-9 months

• Learning/Training and Development: 5-12 months

• University work: 9-12 months

• Professor: 12+ months minimum (unless you're already employed or alumni)

• Start your own executive or other coaching business: 12 months minimum to make up your salary + bigger risk


Set your expectations to reality.


Measure your mental and emotional energy.


Do the things that lead to interviews and not just cold applying online.


You’ve got this.

QUICK WINS

✅ DO THIS RIGHT NOW:  When do you need to make your transition by?

  1. Determine your realistic timeline to get a job.

    1. When do you want to ideally have this next job by?

    2. When is the last possible date you need to have this next job by?

  2. Look at the type of job that you want to get and how much you want to make. 

  1. Work backwards from those dates and make a plan of what you need to work on now to get there

🚀 FROM THE COACHING GROUP

And just like that, received an offer from ADDO today and will be accepting it today!... I felt so prepared because of Launch Point.

🤝 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 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:

  1. 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.​

  2. ​The Ministry To Marketplace Quiz​: Join 416+ 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.​

  3. 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)

Was this forwarded to you? Get this newsletter into your inbox, along with 512+ others, every Friday morning. ​Subscribe here.