My Step-Mom is looking for a new job and there is one job in particular that she wants. This particular job according to her would pay nearly twice as much as she is making right now.
I would think that would be near a 6 figure income but she won’t tell me, I’m excited since I live with her now I will feel like I’m rich for once, if she gets this job.
She has serious doubts she will get the job but not because she is not educated or qualified but because almost her entire work history since her early 20’s (she is in her 40’s now) has been with Christian organizations and she thinks the secular company she is applying for will not take her prior work experience seriously.
A brief rundown of her education and experience… She has an Associates Degree in Math from Community College, a Bachelors in Business Administration from a private Christian college if I’m not mistaken a certificate in Human Resources from the Community College.
Her First Job was 2 years at a public school district Human Resources Department and then 1 year as an Economics Teacher at a Private School, 4 years as a Personal Assistant to a somewhat well-known Pastor, after that she spent 6 years at Trinity Broadcasting’s finance department and finally her most recent Job which is director of Human Resources for a large Christian Ministry.
She tried to alter her resume so that you couldn’t tell that her Jobs were in Ministry so for example Trinity Broadcasting was Trinity Corporation but later she decided that it was not a good idea.
My only question is; if you personally looked at her resume and had to decide whether to hire my Step-Mom, would her previous experience be a strike against her in any way?
To an extent yes, but not to a large extent. If I was looking at two candidates, identical in all ways, except that one only had experience and education from religious institutions, I’d probably pick the other.
That said, it’ very rare to ever have to candidates identical in all other respects. In most of the hiring I’ve done, once qualifications were met, the decision came down to a gut feeling of how well the person would get along with the rest of the organization.
I don’t think I would hold her old jobs against her.
Knowing that most churches have little extra money and each employee has an extrememly large workload and a small paycheck I would probably be inclined to think that she’s a pretty dedicated, hardworking employee.
I think it’s really going to depend on who’s doing the hiring. I would imagine that many companies who are hiring would understand that work experience in a company that has primarily a religious orientation is likely no different from a company with a secular orientation. However, as you may know, there will always be a small minority of people whose views on religion are solely negative; if one of those people is in charge of hiring, yes, her work experience could be held against her. I think the odds of that are slim, because I think that if her experience is right, the bigger question they’ll ask is whether she is a good fit for the organization.
And she’s right not to try to hide where she’s worked. There’s nothing to be ashamed of in it, and they’ll inevitably find out, which will make them wonder what she had to hide.
I think I’d tend to fall along the same thinking lines as SP2263, unless the religious organizations she had worked for were like the Fred Phelps ministry, Jim Jones Foundation or other crackpot church.
In that case, while she is still probably a hard worker, I’d be worried that she’d be too different from the rest of the workers, and consequently cause problems.
Being religious wouldn’t be the issue, but being a loon would.
I don’t think many employers would hold it against her. Whether you’re an accountant, for example, for a religious organization or a secular organization, you’re still doing the same job.
I don’t think anyone at my company would hold experience working at a religious institution or attending a religious school against a candidate. Of course, if her experience isn’t relevant or the school isn’t any good, that would count against her. But that could be true with secular experience or education.
I suppose there may be some people out there who would be turned off by it in the same way my friend who worked at Planned Parenthood for years was worried some people would be turned off by that. However, some employers are turned off because you worked at a company that’s in the news because of a major lawsuit, or they once knew someone from there who was a jerk, or your alma mater beat theirs in basketball, or whatever. Just about everyone has something that may turn off someone at some point. You just have to assume most people aren’t like that and go at it with a positive attitude.
I agree with Campion that a small minority might be automatically and prejudicially against her. I’d flip it too though – it is entirely possible that the Hiring official will be religious, or has a religious Mom/spouse/child and it may tilt the “all things being equal” thing in in her favor. If the position involves a high degree of trust – (i.e. personal trust/integrity is a huge issue for this job) I can see her past working in her favor as well.
If she gets a lot of questions about it (Mrfantsypants said about fitting in) she can share that she has lots of non-religious friends and can easily function well in a non-Secular environment. I wouldn’t make it an issue though unless during the interview process she picks up that it is an issue for the hiring official.
If it did work against her though, maybe it is a blessing. Would she really want a job, just for money, where her co_Workers saw her as some religious weirdo or where the office cranks felt the necessity to share their (own or anti)religious views?
I believe that someone who is religiouse and has worked primarilly in religiouse jobs would have a better chance getting a job with a secular company than a secular person who has worked mainly in secular companies would with a religiouse company.