Do you love to help people? Then you might consider a career in social work. If you have made up your mind, start with pursuing a bachelor’s degree in social work. A bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology might suffice as well.
You can choose school social work, health care social work, clinical social work, or family and child social work. You have to search within yourself what works for you. Are you comfortable with children, the sick, families or schools? That should help you narrow down on a specialty.
Still reading? It seems you are in the right place. Read on as we dig deeper together and find out which steps one should take to start a career as a social worker.
Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work
First things first. You will need a bachelor's degree in social work to become a social worker. That’s what employers will be looking for as the starting point. However, degrees in other related fields, like psychology and sociology can be considered as well.
Then you might consider pursuing masters in a specific field if you plan to work in health care or schools. Otherwise with your bachelor’s, you may qualify for an entry level job.
Self-Check
Since we are looking at how to build your career, you must search yourself first. You don’t want to spend 3 years pursuing a bachelor’s degree in social work and more 2 for masters only to change your mind in the end. It is important to first check ourselves. See the strong points we possess.
Do they match with the career path we want to take? Some people recommend taking a career test before you can fully delve in.
Qualities
Since you will be working with different personalities of people, you should be able to accommodate them. You need to fit in their shoes to convince them take a desired action. It will help you create healthy working relationships with your clients.
You will be tasked with managing different clients. Keeping their documents and paper work requires a level of organization. Since social workers handle multiple people; they should be able to manage their time well.
Each client needs attention as well as your personal work. So you should be able to divide your time among all your clients and make them satisfied with your services.
Your job is to help with people’s problems. Therefore you should be innovative and practical in your solutions. Your clients are going to be telling you their problems. When you listen and understand your client’s problems, working around the solution becomes easier.
Work Environments
You must appreciate where you are likely to work as a social worker. Much as some of them will be in office settings, they have to go out and meet their clients. The work setting depends on your social work specialty.
Some of these settings, include correctional facilities, schools, state and local governments, hospitals and military bases, substance abuse clinics, nursing homes, child welfare agencies, or mental health clinics, etc.
Certifications and Licenses
Countries require a certain level of certification and licensing of their social workers. However, the requirements vary with country and state. Most countries need their clinical social workers to be licensed.
To become a licensed clinical social worker, you must have a master's degree in social work. Also, you must have worked 3,000 hours of supervised medical experience or minimum of 2 years clinical working experience.
Salary
The level of education determines salary. Also, work environment determines salary. We have listed the varying salaries you may acquire as a social worker in different specializations.
- State government median wage is $46,120
- Individual and family services median wage is $40,800
- Hospitals median wage is $58,490
- Local government median wage is $52,900
Also Read: Google for Jobs: Discover the Best Jobs Near You
Conclusion
If you have searched yourself and possess the qualities that make a good social worker, then you should give it a try. It entails working closely with people.
You should hold a bachelor’s degree in social work. Then if you want to specialize, you will undertake a master’s course that lasts 2 years or even less in some states.
