Career Management — How to Make Ministry Experience Matter in Any Job
By Jeff Eads, Co-Executive Director of Muncie Fellows
Part 8 of 9 of a series about workplace competencies. Read Part 1 here.
Transferable Skill #7- Career Management
Career Management: Identify and articulate one’s skills, strengths, knowledge, and experiences relevant to the position desired and career goals, and identify areas necessary for professional growth. The individual is able to navigate and explore job options, understands and can take the steps necessary to pursue opportunities, and understands how to self-advocate for opportunities in the workplace. (Source)
Understanding one’s strengths and skills is something many churches regularly promote. Perhaps your church provides “spiritual gift assessments” as part of their membership class or leadership development. Or, maybe your small group or leadership team has taken a personality assessment like MBTI or the Enneagram. Christians tend to understand that the Bible teaches that individuals are given gifts (1 Corinthians 12) and that God created us uniquely, to do good works in which God prepared for us (Ps. 139:13–18, Ephesians 2:10). These assessments are helpful to give us perspective on the types of tasks that we should be investing in and the kind of tasks that are probably better yielded to others.
In addition, the church has a strong emphasis on personal growth. My guess is that every week someone in your church or student ministry provides a message that concludes with specific applications aimed for you to grow personally and spiritually. The Christian life is not one of complacency but one of continual development.
This same understanding should be applied to our professional careers. Our jobs are one of the primary places that we get to live out our gifts. Employers, like ministries, want to place people to serve in functional areas in which they can do their best work. We can then enjoy the process of growing, improving, and applying our skills to new opportunities. The NACE definition speaks of “self-advocacy”. This is to say that we don’t sit on our hands and hope something comes our way. Instead, we look at potential future opportunities, discover how to develop the necessary skills to do a good job, and then ask for the responsibility.
It is unlikely that you think of your Christian life in terms of career management. However, this competency aligns with what most Christians are learning in the church…grow, learn, develop, and look for a place to serve rather than to be served.
As a career coach, there are two interview questions that I see trip people up that directly relate to this competency.
- Tell me three of your weaknesses (and strengths)
- What are your future goals/ where do you see yourself in five years?
Most students I provide practice interviews for answer these questions from a position of not wanting to mess up. The significance of the career management competency should challenge candidates to come at these questions from a place of strength and confidence.
…grow, learn, develop, and look for a place to serve rather than to be served.
Employers know that you have weaknesses. Don’t try to hide it. Think of the weakness question (and all questions) in relation to the job description and let them know where your growth areas are. Then trust that they will respect your self-awareness. This is to your advantage as well. You don’t want to get hired after not being honest, only to discover that the company isn’t equipped to develop you and find yourself doomed to work in a position in which you are not skilled.
Employers also want to know that you understand various paths forward in your career. When they ask about your five-year plan, they don’t expect you to know the future. However, you can demonstrate to them that you have done some reflecting and that you know some options exist within their company. Students often do harm to their efforts when answering this question interviewing for internships.
They’ll say, “I would like to have this internship because it will look good on my resume when I apply for a full-time position at another company.” If that company hires for their full-time positions out of their intern pool (as many do), then they are likely to be looking for interns who want to work for them long term. So, tell them the kind of career path that you are looking for and ask them if they can provide that opportunity. They will appreciate your “self-advocacy” per the definition above.
The bottom line is, as Christians, we are to live intentional lives. Lives of purpose. Career Management is part of this. Your career is your responsibility. Think about who you are, what you have to offer, and create a flexible plan of potential paths forward. Then work as for an audience of One (Colossians 3:17).
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