You may or may not consider putting a resume together a daunting task. For those who haven’t put together a resume before it may seem like a big task, however it doesn’t need to be intimidating.

Putting together a good resume is an important task in searching for an opportunity, however isn’t the only one – or even the most important. (A few people may be thinking “How can you say that? Isn’t it the resume that lands someone the position?” however I would have to respond that “No, it isn’t ultimately the resume that lands you the position and that while putting together a good resume is an important part, it is not the most important part of seeking an ministry opportunity to serve in.”) Granted, getting a resume to the people seeking someone to serve in the position that they are announcing is important, however a resume doesn’t “land one the position”, it rather can help open the way for an interview and the rest of the discernment process. (A quick side note: remember that the discernment process isn’t just a one-way process with the church or committee deciding upon you; you should also be seeking to discern if this is a good match and if you may be called to this opportunity.) That being said, put in the effort to create a good, up-to-date resume but don’t obsess over the resume. Having reviewed thousands of resumes working as a recruiter for years prior to leaving the industry to attend seminary I thought that I’d pass along some thoughts on creating and editing resumes for those interested.

OK, on to a few general pointers on creating a resume.

General appearance – In putting together your resume, it is wise to pay attention to the general appearance of the resume. Is it easy to read and follow a logical pattern? Can someone read the resume or has the text size been shrunk so much to fit everything on a page that anyone wanting to read it has to find and use a magnifying glass. (If so it’s more likely your resume will find the circular filing bin before a magnifying glass is found.)

Length – A resume is a concise summary of your background, experience, skills, etc. and isn’t meant to be, and shouldn’t be, the size of a novel or a volume of Thomas Oden’s Systematic Theology. In general, I’d suggest keeping your resume to a page or two if at all possible. Please be kind to people’s eyes and don’t shrink the font so much that people need to use a magnifying glass to read anything in order to get it down to one page.
Spelling counts – How much more needs to be said? Show that you have enough interest in the opportunity to check your resume for spelling errors. Having another person look over the spelling can be helpful and may catch things that a computer’s spelling check may miss.

Honesty / Truth-telling – It should go without saying that honesty and truth-telling should be a practice that one follows in not only interviewing and in what one says on a resume, but in the rest of life. Yet one may be surprised by the frequency that people when job-hunting, in the so-called “business world”, misrepresent themselves and/or in their resumes, applications or interviews. Don’t be too quick to say that it never happens among those searching for ministry opportunities, unfortunately it does sometimes happen. Why would one feel the necessity of lying and not telling the truth on a resume, application or interview? Do they believe that God needs their help, by lying or withholding some important, relevant information, in order for them to land an opportunity? Let us carefully and prayerfully examine our motives if we do feel tempted in this area. (You may even want to take a few minutes of the time that you set aside to prepare to search for a new opportunity and look up occurrences of the words truth, honest or honesty in the Bible.)

I still wonder why some of the people in the corporate world, who only were looking at things pragmatically, would want to try to lie or not practice truth-telling in their resumes, applications, or interviews because of the likelihood that the lie or misrepresentation could be discovered in the reference checks or background checks and disqualify them from the opportunity. The lie or dishonesty could even be discovered after they have been employed for some time jeopardize their continued employment or work relationships. Why would someone want to have a fear nag them that a lie or something relevant that should have been shared would be discovered later and impact their employment, relationships, etc.?

Another set of eyes – It is an excellent idea to have another person to look over your resume. They will be able catch things that only a fresh reading of a resume can do and provide a more objective opinion as to if the resume seems to flow, make sense, or is unclear in some manner.

Additional resume advice and job search strategy articles will be coming soon. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact Jeff Sturgeon using the contact page of the website.