What Factors And Experiences Have Led You To Choose A Human Service Career?

Past SocialWorkDegreeGuide.com Staff

Final Updated: May 2020

Social work makes for an incredibly fulfilling withal emotionally taxing career selection. Professionals enter challenging work environments to aid people facing uphill battles and frequently find themselves helping with crisis situations, such as mental health or abuse emergencies.

Many social workers choose the field exactly for these reasons. They want to brand a tangible difference in people'south lives, and social work is one of the most effective professions in helping others. If yous're because condign a social worker, this article outlines 5 reasons why social work might be the career for y'all.

#one. You will find many chore opportunities.

Aspiring social workers exercise non demand to worry virtually spending fruitless months in search of a task. The social piece of work field offers many chances for employment in several different areas, according to Sterling Woods, a psychiatric social worker at the George J. Otlowski Sr. Center for Mental Health Intendance in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

"The field of social piece of work has a variety of career opportunities based on your population of interest. The number of populations is vast and are based on ethnicity, gender, historic period, faith, sexuality, disability, and location," Wood explained.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the social piece of work field to grow by eleven% from 2018-28, a much faster pace than boilerplate.

"Considering of its sensitive nature, the globe will continuously demand social workers to address the globe's issues," said Sojourner White, a second-year chief of social piece of work (MSW) educatee at the Brown School at Washington Academy in St. Louis. "Social work is ane of the more than consequent careers with the flexibility to pivot and abound equally you go."

#2. The social work career path is versatile.

People pursue social piece of work careers because they want to aid others. These professionals practise non piece of work merely equally government employees. In their day-to-mean solar day work, they accept on many other roles, as well.

"We can be therapists, doulas, policy analysts, community wellness advocates, diversity trainers and facilitators, juvenile court liaisons, special needs teachers, and more," White said.

Social workers can too cull the blazon of work they adopt. "We can work domestically or internationally," White added. "We can do micro-, mezzo-, or macro-level work. There are and so many possibilities that go unnoticed — and that'southward what makes it amazing."

Social work offers careers in which professionals tin utilise their interests and strengths to mold their jobs productively.

"No matter your hobbies, interests, and life experiences, each can be used to assistance deliver unique and effective service to your clients," Woods said.

#3. Social work leads to self-comeback.

Social workers oft possess a securely ingrained sense of altruism, focusing on others without considering themselves. And so it might come as a surprise when these professionals realize that their jobs can help them develop and grow, too.

"By supporting, advocating, empowering, and educating others, you inherently practise the same for yourself," said Rumina Morris, social worker and multifariousness consultant.

Morris' advice might seem puzzling at first. After all, self-help books and gurus more often than not don't advise people to become social workers to find self-enlightenment. But the growth that social workers experience develops from the job'due south challenges. Those obstacles force social workers to confront their shortcomings.

"Non many careers volition afford y'all this type of reflective practice by having yous challenge your assumptions on a regular basis," Morris added. "As a child welfare worker, I have had to examine my values, beliefs, and unconscious biases throughout the course of my career."

#4. Social workers change people'southward lives.

Every bit evident equally this may seem, helping to change lives is i of the most of import and rewarding elements of going into social work. When social workers help people, they practise not just appear in their lives for a few minutes with words of encouragement. They help people in substantive means, helping them through major difficulties, such as poverty, substance corruption, and habit.

"Yous can accept a pregnant bear on in people's lives in dissimilar but meaningful ways. Y'all have the award of being with people through some very emotional situations," Morris said.

The impact you have on each person'south life will stick with you lot, also. This sense that you are making a real deviation is one of the reasons why social workers continue careers that are otherwise challenging.

"There is zip more rewarding and satisfying than helping a client solve a problem or supporting them through a hard fourth dimension in their life," Woods said. "In that location has been no greater privilege than being immune to be the listening ear or shoulder someone needed to lean on."

#v. Social workers modify the earth.

Social workers make a departure in individuals' lives, which also leads to change at the systemic level.

"Social workers have always been the voice of marginalized people in order," Morris said. "Within a career in social piece of work, you lot play an essential part in the bigger picture show of how our society treats its nigh vulnerable people."

In other words, social workers affect cardinal social justice bug, such every bit poverty, disability, inequality, and child abuse. Few people have the insight into these problems that social workers practice.

Social workers can use their knowledge of the arrangement to change information technology from the within out. They can apply their expertise to make recommendations to judges or advocate to lawmakers.

Our Contributors

Sterling Woods is a psychiatric social worker at the George J. Otlowski Sr. Center for Mental Wellness Care in Perth Amboy, New Bailiwick of jersey, and an intensive in-community, primary's-level therapist. Woods holds an MSW from University of Southern California and has worked in the field for almost three years.

Rumina Morris earned a bachelor of social work from Ryerson University and has several years of experience within the public sector. Morris' areas of specialty include diverseness, equity, inclusion, and human being rights.

Sojourner White, a 2nd-year MSW student at the Brown Schoolhouse at Washington University in St. Louis, focuses on international social and economic development with a specialization in social entrepreneurship. White's social work interests prevarication in international social piece of work, harnessing skills in education, racial and gender equity, and evaluation. White also writes on her travel weblog: Sojournies.

Source: https://www.socialworkdegreeguide.com/lists/5-reasons-to-consider-a-career-in-social-work/

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