An excerpt from The Indispensable Youth Pastor: Get Hire. Stay Hired.

Love Your Job

By Mark DeVries and Jeff Dunn-Rankin
Downloaded from www.HireAYouthPastor.com - “Don’t Settle”

CHAPTER NINE
THE RÉSUMÉ: YOUR FIRST INTERVIEW

I was emailed a résumé recently from someone applying for an open position. I loved
what I read, but I hated what I saw.
The content was fine. The presentation—well, it looked like it had been done by a third-
grader: tiny, almost unreadable fonts; minimal margins: words scrunched together like
there was a prize for who could fit the most words on a page. And unfortunately, the
appearance communicated volumes.
It gave me my first clue of how this candidate would tend to handle assignments given
him in the youth ministry. If his résumé was any indication, he would get the job done
but might have trouble finishing well. Fair or not, the typical search committee will
assume this candidate wouldn’t bring much creative energy beyond first attempts.
Not surprisingly, this candidate never got called for an interview. Here’s why.
Your resume is your first interview. If a search committee considers your résumé (your
first impression) embarrassing, there’s a good chance you’ll never have a chance to make
a second one. Those responsible for hiring may simply assume—rightly or wrongly—that
your work, your event promotion, and maybe even your judgment would be equally
sloppy. A sloppy résumé is like dressing sloppy for an interview. You’ve already spoken
volumes before you even open your mouth.
In an age of tremendous publishing software resources built into most computers, there is
no excuse for a tacky, amateurish-looking résumé. Take the few extra minutes it will take
to make sure your résumé inspires more confidence than questions, more curiosity than
contempt.
As you prepare or update your résumé, in addition to giving attention to presentation and
accuracy, you’ll want to avoid these very avoidable mistakes we’ve seen more times than
we care to count:
• Cramming. Somewhere along the way, our candidate with the third-grader résumé
must have been told to limit his résumé to no more than one page. That would ordinarily
be fine advice, but if following it requires annoyingly small fonts or formatting that
makes the eyes squint and the head spin, take two or three pages. Clear and compelling is
more important than brief. The one exception to this rule is when a searching church
specifically directs applicants to limit their resumes to one page.
• Meandering. Your résumé gives your potential employer a quick look at what you have
already accomplished. There is no better indication of future success than past success.
Those reading your résumé don’t need long paragraphs about your philosophy of youth
ministry (which will likely sound a lot like 90 percent of the other candidates’
paragraphs). What will set you apart is what you have actually done, not what books you
have read about what you’d like to do.
• Not Providing a Reference From One of Your Previous Churches. If you don’t
include a reference for one of the churches where you served, you can be pretty sure that
the smart search teams will take the time to check with the senior pastor at any church for
which you didn’t include a reference. If you want someone other than the senior pastor to
be your reference, you’ll want to include a raving fan from every church you served in
the last 10 to 15 years.
• Not Knowing What Your References Will Say. Some candidates like to pad their
reference list with names of people who might be a little more well known in the world of
youth ministry but who really have very little idea of the capacity and gifts of the person
they are endorsing. Smart search committees will raise enough good questions to quickly
see through these thin references. If you have a reference whom you think might carry
more weight in the world of youth ministry, just make sure you help him or her know you
well enough to answer common reference questions.
• Sloppy Saving. You’ll want to be careful how you name your résumé document in your
computer, especially if you plan to attach your resume to an email. Attached résumé titles
like “Conservative Church Resume,” “Emergent Resume,” and “Ain’t I Cool Resume”
may be helpful for your own filing purposes, but good old boring “Nancy Smith’s
Résumé 1” works best.
One Final Word…
With all our hype about the importance of a strong résumé, you might be surprised to
hear this one last comment:
We never trust a résumé.
A cool and impressive résumé does not mean that you can do the job any more than a
tuxedo on a pig means a great prom date.
So take the time to draft a compelling, results-focused résumé, along with a personal
cover letter. But once the résumé is done, spend your time focusing on honing your own
craft as a youth ministry practitioner. The writer of Proverbs was right: Do you see any
truly competent workers? They will serve kings rather than working for ordinary people
(Proverbs 22:29).
Landing the youth ministry job of your dreams begins not simply with you marketing
yourself well but, more importantly, with you becoming the youth pastor that your future
church is dreaming of.