A few months ago Malcolm Himschoot, the Minister for Ministerial Transitions at the United Church of Christ's national office, provided a guest post to this blog about the new UCC Profile process which will debut on January 31, 2014. In December of 2013 the UCC posted some more information, including samples of completed Profiles and how-to videos. Unless I get a job through the current Profile system in the meantime, I plan to blog my entire journey of creating, activating and using the Profile. This first blog entry will involve a quick overview of the differences between this Profile and the one that has been in use for at least the last decade or so. What remains (more or less) the same:
Basic contact information
Statement of Consent by the individual to circulate the Profile
Authorizations/Approvals by local and denominational officials
Criminal background check and disclosure about accusations of misconduct, etc.
What has changed: Pretty much everything else.
The profile will be a live online document and certain parts can be changed by the Minister or Member in Discernment at any time.
Each profile contains a "snapshot" that can only be viewed by Conference Staff. This section highlights gifts, skills and availability for ministry and can be updated in real time.
The Statement on Ministry has changed to a series of essay questions about the "Marks of Faithful and Effective Ministers" (a list of character traits developed as part of the recent by-law changes regarding authorized ministry in the UCC.)
Checklists for self-evaluation and evaluation by references have been replaced by essay questions of the type that will be familiar to white-collar workers.
Three references are required and each individual Profile user will be able to hide some references in real time when seeking particular calls at his/her own discretion.
There is no limit on the number of positions that can be included under "Vocational Experiences." (The previous profile only allowed for four positions.) If the clergy person so chooses they can omit some positions from this part and list them only briefly in a smaller section at the end of the Vocational Experiences. This section provides room for summarizing three key accomplishments. Gone is the requirement to provide data about church size and budget for each position.
There is room to include supplemental information and attachments, as well as a section for live links to sermon videos, websites, blogs, etc. This is not required but is strongly encouraged.
The Profile concludes with space for "Closing Thoughts," such as a" prayer or dream for the community which you imagine serving ... a poem, a Scripture passage, or a piece of music that is meaningful to you."
My initial reaction as a job seeker is very positive. I have longed for a Profile that enabled me to tell my story in my own way, and that would make it easy for search committees to access live links to websites directly from the Profile. I also think that reading narrative profiles (as opposed to profiles filled with checklists and numbers) is going to be much easier for search committee members. On the other hand, some Ministers used to the "old way" of doing things may have a hard time completing a new Profile that serves them as well as the old Profile did. Also, it is going to make it much harder for committees that receive a tremendous amount of Profiles. Although it is greatly discouraged, I am certain that some search committees rely on the checklist of attributes or data about the size of churches the applicant has served recently to narrow the field. Search committees who will be doing their work during the transition period (the old format will be phased out over a period of eighteen months) will deal with the further headache of receiving profiles in both formats--they will essentially be comparing apples and oranges. National and Conference Staff members are also going to have their hands full with people struggling to tell the story of their ministry in a new way. Some clergy are not very familiar with the terminology of Marks of Faithful and Effective Ministers, even if they are shining examples of these Marks. As a bi-vocational clergy person I am an old-hand at writing resumes and designing web content to support my job search, and I still feel I make a lot of mistakes and have a lot to learn. Those who have never done this will likely experience confusion and frustration. My current plan is to start right now to prepare the materials that will be placed on the new Profile. I will let my references know that new and different reference requests will be coming their way very soon. I will work on the wording of my essay questions and accomplishments. I will revise my resume blog to compliment this new Profile format. Then, when the new process is activated, I will jump right in and try to get my new Profile up and running as soon as possible. I'm sure this will involve some bumps, which I plan to blog about (don't worry, National and Conference staff. I will use grace, kindness and humility when I write about the bugs that we are going to uncover together through this process.) This is part 1 of a series of posts about the new UCC Profile process. Part 2, in which I talk about developing a web link strategy, can be found here. Part 3, in which I discuss pitfalls to avoid in providing links to web content, can be found here.
I'm prepping for my very first Skype interview. I'm actually kind of excited. Skype interviews are the greatest thing to happen to job seekers in a long time. They can go a long way in overcoming the disadvantages of looking for a job in a different geographical area. Since a lot of human communication is non-verbal (experts disagree on how much), adding a visual element to a long-distance interview potentially provides an advantage over written and phone communication methods. I do have a little bit of concern about skyping. A live video feed is similar to a snapshot, in that it can enable you to "crop out" distractions. On the other hand, being "boxed in" on camera can put the focus on something that distracts and distances interviewers, such as a hair twirling habit. Do I twirl my hair? I don't think so, but we all have habits, and sometimes we aren't very aware of them. Watch a few minutes of one of those cable TV shows that put pundits in "talking head" boxes and you will see what I mean. Some people come across as likeable and believable regardless of the content of their message, while others are instantly off-putting. Try watching it with the sound off, and then turn the sound on and close your eyes, and you will see what I mean. Communication is a combination of sight, sound and content. There are a lot of sources of advice for Skype interviews online. I thought this brief video on Time.com was particularly valuable. The main obstacle to successful Skype interviewing for the novice can be mastering the technology itself. I'm planning to practice getting on to Skype prior to my interview. I will update you as to how the interview went. Update: The actual Skyping went well but I was unprepared for a question about leaving my previous position that came up because this committee had received an earlier version of my Profile from their Conference office. I had informed them of my change in status but they forgot. Even though it was down to just a few applicants, it was wrong of me to expect the committee members to all remember every little detail about me. Lesson learned. I ultimately did not get the job but that was mostly because their theology tended to be much more conservative than mine. I have had no conflicts with church participants and members whose theology differed from mine, but that has always been in a context of a church with theological diversity so it might be different in a more homogeneous environment.
This is yet another aspect of searching for a clergy job that differs a great deal from most other job searches. Clergy job interviews sometimes unfold over a period of days, during which time the prospective Pastor socializes with church members, preaches a sermon to an unfamiliar crowd, and (generally) participates in an interview by a committee. If the clergy person has a family, they may participate in the social aspects of the interview process. It is vital for the clergy person to "be him/her self" throughout the entire process, but even if things don't feel quite right, she/he needs to make it through the whole marathon and keep his/her ego intact if the church turns them down for the position. Meanwhile, the stakes are high, and these sorts of stakes tend to throw someone off his/her game. In the past I have aced clergy job interviews, and I have sometimes also not aced them. As with other interview processes, it is good to go over the materials you have about the position for which you are interviewing, and check out the web site if they have one. My denomination provides references that the job seeker can call to learn about the church from a perspective other than that of the search committee. The sorts of interview questions you are likely to field can be found here. (Please note that this is a PDF document and you will need to scroll waaaaaay down to resource 11B.) One thing I have noticed about most clergy jobs is that the interview committees tend to "dress down" even in a formal job interview session, so while it's always a great idea to dress for success, try to also dress in a way that you seem comfortable in your clothes. Dress the way you might on a regular Sunday morning. As with other job interviews, it is most important to answer questions clearly but try to keep things brief. It is probably not a great idea to launch into mini-sermons or tell long stories. The thing that helps me the most is to be well rested, well fed and to exercise the morning before the interview. A recent TED talk offered a proverbial "one weird trick" to help prep for a nerve-wracking situation, such as a job interview.
And I would be remiss not to mention bringing spiritual practice into the entire interview process, before, during, and after the interview. You can check out the resources page on this blog for online and phone-app spiritual resources.
