Why Interviewers Hire Pastors: How to Stand Out in Corporate Job Interviews (Part 1)
Feb 20, 2026
Read Time: 4 minutes
Todd Linder
Founder & Head Coach
Overview
Welcome to the Ministry To Marketplace Minute! Today will be part 1 of 2, breaking down how to succeed in interviews. We’ll start with what interviewers are actually looking for and how you can position yourself well. Next week will be breaking down each type of interview, what to expect, and how to prepare. So let’s dive in.
Today's Ministry To Marketplace Minute:
Mindset Shift: The ex-pastor’s way to get a new job.
Strategy Shift: Winning in interviews when transitioning from ministry.
Do This Right Now: Position yourself well by doing these things.
Who Will Hire Me?: 5 ministry friendly organizations with jobs for ex-pastors.
🧠 MINDSET SHIFT: The ex-pastor’s way to get a new job.
I want you to change the way you think about interviews.
Interviews are not conversations with people who may or may not like you or hire you.
Interviews are opportunities to get hired.
Every. Single. One.
That’s why you might have heard me say, “We measure success as how fast you can get interviews for jobs that you want that will support your family.”
Because if interviews are opportunities to get hired, then we want to create as many opportunities as possible as fast as possible.
That means that knowing how to win in interviews is just as important as getting them.
What if you’re getting interviews, but not offers?
I hear people tell me, “Todd, I’m getting interviews, but none of them are leading to offers - and I don’t know why.”
We’re doing a two-part series for this one.
Part 1, I’m going to outline:
What you need to know about why some candidates get chosen, and others rejected.
How interviewers keep score when evaluating candidates.
How you can position yourself well, even without a background that is apples to apples, on paper.
Part 2 (next week), I’m going to outline:
Each type of interview you will likely encounter, and the purpose of that interview.
What to expect in each one.
How to prepare to interview so you get the offer.
♟️ STRATEGY SHIFT: Winning in interviews when transitioning from ministry.
Let’s start with what hiring teams are ACTUALLY looking for.
We call becoming a top candidate “becoming an A Player.”
This concept comes from a well known recruiting book that defines an A Player as: A candidate who has at least a 90% chance of achieving outcomes that only the top 10% of possible candidates could achieve.
In practice, this means:
You want your resume to match at least 90% of the job description.
Your resume needs to show that you are a top 10% performer through demonstrating excellence and exceeding expectations through stories and metrics.
Not only do we help you to get more opportunities to get offers in the Interview Accelerator, but we help you show up as an A Player. We have a four part workshop series that goes in depth on everything that we’re covering in the next two newsletters.
Why do some candidates get chosen?
To get an offer sooner, you need to know what hiring teams are looking for. Here’s how candidates get evaluated.
Mission alignment: Does the candidate understand why the job exists and the business problem that is being solved for?
Outcomes: The specific, measurable results the candidate needs to achieve.
Competencies: The actions, technical skills, and soft skills required to win in the role.
Beyond these, bonuses for being a top candidate include,
Being known for the value they bring outside of the resume, just through networking.
Being liked for how their career journey fits the organization (presented through telling your story)
Being trusted to exceed expectations.
Feeling discouraged that you’re not qualified enough?
Reminder: it is not the person who is the most qualified that gets the job, it is the person who can communicate they are the most qualified FOR THE JOB that gets the job.
What this means is that for most companies, charisma, smooth talking, and “I can learn anything” don’t work.
If those have been your answers, they likely won’t cut it.
How interviewers keep score.
Most hiring teams will use a basic scorecard. A series of important characteristics that each interviewer will be looking for and scoring the candidates on. This helps to ensure more consistency across candidate evaluations.
Most likely, the scorecard will evaluate those three core areas from above: Mission, Outcomes, and Competencies.
We further break these down as the P.A.R.T.S. of the job description. If you know how to tell stories about PARTS, you know how to score well on the scorecard.
You can read in depth about the P.A.R.T.S. of the job description in this newsletter HERE.
Positioning yourself well.
What if you don’t have a perfect background that aligns well?
If you got into the interview, there is a reason. Someone is at least curious.
Three ways you can become more attractive as a candidate.
Tell stories about how you have done similar things with outsized results.
Highlight core competencies by weaving them into your stories.
Address the gaps in experience head-on.
Stories
If you have done something similar that yielded a similar or better result than what they are hoping for, that can make sense in the mind of the interviewer. Your job is to connect the dots on why your experience makes sense. Stories are the best way to do that.
Core Competencies
In general, there are nine core competencies that hiring teams value across most roles:
Assertiveness
Analytical skills
Attention to detail
Efficiency
Integrity
Planning and organization
Follow-through
Proactiveness
Adaptability
Weave these into your stories to show how you bring these to the table.
But what about the gaps?
Address them honestly and head on. The worst thing you can do is not talk about them, because then everything is based on assumption once you’re out of the room. If someone thinks that all you do is drink coffee with people and talk from a stage once or twice a week, they don’t understand what you do. But you can’t know what they think unless you bring it up.
To sum it all up, your job in interviews is to be the most attractive candidate possible by communicating that you are the most qualified FOR THE JOB,
Through your stories
Through clear results you’ve accomplished that are relevant to the job
And by calling out the gaps before they can be counted against you.
✅ DO THIS RIGHT NOW: Position yourself well by doing these things.
Evaluate from the Strategy Shift section, what do you need to do to become an A Player, and change those things.
Focus on:
Aligning your stories to the job description
Weaving in core competencies into your stories
Creating a script for addressing objections to your background head-on that you can use in the interview.
🚀 FROM THE COACHING GROUP
3 job offers in 48 hours! Huge celebration in the community!
🤝 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 email newsletter only.
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How we can help you:
FREE Ultimate Guide To Your Ministry To Marketplace Transition Our entire process in a free (yes, FREE) guide that walks you step-by-step through the essentials of landing a marketplace job that you'll enjoy, and supports your family. Each section builds on the next: clarity, translation, resume, and LinkedIn connections… everything you need to start seeing traction in your search. You can sign up here >>> Sign up for the Ultimate Guide.
The Ministry To Marketplace Interview Accelerator Join 120+ others who 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 for getting more interviews for jobs that value your ministry experience and support your family. Let's hop on a call!
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