(ThyBlackMan.com) Building a career in any given pursuit or vocation is a difficult task. You need to acquire the skills required for your starter job and the qualifications to hit the ground running in your first role. As you progress in your career, you’ll need to brush up on your repertoire’s more advanced skills – all while getting the experience and additional responsibilities you’ll need to advance to seniority in your field. This piece is all about applying these tried-and-tested lessons to a career in social work, showing you how you’ll be able to build your successful career in the field of social work.
At School
If you’re still finishing high school, or you’re about to begin training at a college before you graduate at the age of 18, your journey towards a career in social work has already begun. While social work is not taught in schools, and an online social work degree is the best way for you to get specific skills for the job, there are plenty of subjects that’ll help set you up for a university course in the future.
These include English, mathematics, and social science courses in psychology or sociology. In any case, as you undertake your exams, you must get the best possible results, trying hard in all of your subjects, so that you’ll qualify for entry into some of the most impressive universities in the country – including those that offer an online social work degree.
Applying for University
It’s worth focusing for a while on how you’ll apply for university after concluding your studies – or as a mature student with ambitions to enter the social work field. The application process to get you into a university of your choosing is laborious and time-consuming and will involve you handing over a good deal of personal information, on a strict deadline, as well as information regarding your passion for your subject and proof of your academic record.
For mature students who may be haunted by their inadequate grades, this is the time to brush up on your resume and retake exams that you performed poorly in when you were last in school. For those just emerging from school with the requisite grades to enter university, this is a time to search for an online social work degree that’ll work for you and start your application weeks or months before the deadline.
Getting Your Place
There are two main ways to achieve a bachelor’s degree in social work: you can choose to work within an academic institution, move to halls of residence, and attend lectures and tutorials. This is the more expensive option for most students and can be out of reach for many ambitious students from low-income families. The second option, and the preferred option in these virus-hit times, is remote-working on an online social work degree. You’ll study online, watch lectures online, and participate in tutorials online, too.
When you receive your place on one of the two courses outlined above, you’ll want to prepare for the rigorous study that your course will entail. Will you have time to work alongside your studies, in a part-time capacity? Will you be able to support yourself if you’re moving to live closer to your university campus? And will you have the time and the resources required to work well for the duration of your three-year course? These are your immediate concerns about receiving a place to study at university.
Making the Most of Your Studies
For many of the students who sign on to an online social work degree, this is the first time a family member has attended university. For such ambitious and trail-blazing pupils, this is a responsibility they’re sure to take seriously – ensuring they make the most of the opportunities to learn and progress while they’re at university. For others, a university is still a place of powerful learning and unexpected self-betterment opportunities, including extra modules and extra-curricular activities.
Nevertheless, your focus should always be placed on your studies – the major in social work that you’re going to be focusing much of your energy on for the coming months. How do you make the most out of this chance to learn from some of the foremost scholars in the world? Here are some quick tips:
- Ensure that you develop a personal relationship with your tutors. You never know when a quick email might help you with an essay, an exam, or even a job application.
- Work with other students as much as possible. You’ll learn from them as you learn from your tutors and lecturers, and you’ll make friends for life, too.
- Seize all the chances to attend extra lectures and seminars on the topics within your subject that truly interest you – especially those given by social workers.
- Be sure to meet all of your deadlines and plan your working week around the assignments that you’ve been given to always remain on top of your workload.
With these four tips in mind, you’ll be best placed to make the most out of your exciting experience, either within a university or studying for an online social work degree from your home.
Work Experience
You don’t need to hold a degree in social work to get a little work experience in the field. Indeed, while you study for your online social work degree, it’s likely that you’ll be offered the chance to go into an institution or to visit a client in need of a social worker to get hands-on experience with the people that your career will lead you to in the future. These experiences are incredibly valuable and will help prepare you for the vocational path leading from university into your future.
Whenever there’s a chance to undertake work experience, paid or otherwise, it’s worth trying as hard as you can to fit it into your busy schedule. You should also consider pushing your tutors and the contacts you make to see if they’ll offer you a day or longer in the kind of environment you can expect after graduation. This preparation will help you feel more comfortable and far more prepared when you eventually begin your career.
Graduation
Getting your degree, at the end of a hard-working and often tumultuous time at university, is always a privilege and a great pleasure. This is a time to celebrate and to thank those that have helped you along the way. Now, when you’re writing up your next resume, you’re able to add that you have a bachelor’s degree in social work, and this is the kind of CV addition that’s going to get you the jobs in social work that you’ve been working towards while you’ve been studying. You’ll take this key qualification with you throughout your future career.
While graduation is certainly a time for celebration, it’s also a time for reflection and forward planning. It’s a time for you and your family or loved ones to appreciate the work you’ve put in, but it’s also a time to look forward and to think clearly about the work that looms ahead. How will you get your first job – and how will you know if it’s the right one?
Getting Your First Job
Your first role as a social worker, on completing your online social work degree, is your first step into your career. No wonder that thousands of social work students treat this first role seriously, and with a little trepidation. Find a great first role with a company or organization that you trust. You’ll begin your career on the right foot, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities to rise the ranks and to achieve seniority later in your career. Here’s how to find the best employers in social work:
- Check each employer that you discover on job sites. Glassdoor is a website that enables employees to review the companies that they work for. Pay heed to such reviews when applying for your first job.
- Try to talk to current employees of the firm that you’re applying to. They might be able to give you an idea of what it’s like to work there.
- Ask as many questions as you might have when you reach the interview stage. Make sure this is the environment for you.
- Apply for organizations that have been around in the industry for many years – they’ll be better-equipped and more likely to have seniority layers for you to penetrate.
- Be prepared to take a low initial wage, working on probation or as an intern; if you trust the firm, they’ll be working to promote you quickly when you prove yourself on the job.
Making an Impression
When you decide to take a job offer that’s been extended to you, you’ll have your first chance to put the skills you gained from your online social work degree to the test. This is a brilliant and exciting time – and you’ll be taking a lot of energy to your first position that is sure to impress your co-workers and your managers.
Remember that employers are looking for individuals who can show a real work ethic and willingness to go the extra mile. Those who hired you will be particularly impressed if you’re able to settle into this new routine quickly, with minimal oversight. Nonetheless, it would help if you always were looking to colleagues more senior than yourself for tips and advice – they’re your new mentors and tutors, and they’ll help you work harder and better in the months and years ahead.
Getting Senior Roles
The only way to be given a senior role in social work is to spend years in the field, working hard, and improving the skills you picked up at university. Senior positions are so named because they’re offered to people who have been working for a long time in their role. So, you shouldn’t expect to be offered a senior position before you’ve got at least five years of work experience under your belt. Talk to your managers about your aspirations for promotions – and see what feedback they give on how you’ll be able to get there faster.
You’ll still be on the chase for pay rises, additional benefits, and better positions at other firms. This is your motivation as you pass through the early years of your career: to always go after better opportunities and more exciting chances to develop as a worker and as a person. Remember that patience is key when you’re looking to rise through the ranks. You’ll not always be able to climb – and sometimes changing a firm will be better for your career than hanging on in your current role.
Career Achievements
Once you’ve been working in social work for many years, and you’ve found yourself rewarded for your time in the field with pay rises and promotions, it’s time to take stock and consider your options. Social work is one of those vocations that rewards as much through human contact and a feel-good on-the-job ethos than it does in high salaries and senior positions. But that doesn’t mean that you should check your ambition.
Suppose you’re serious about the benefits that social work can bring, and you want to make an even bigger difference than you’re already making. In that case, you can look into shaping social policy on a federal or state level – advising lawmakers in your area. You can lecture and speak to your community – or to a new batch of students. And you can help to train the new generation of social workers who will take your place when it’s time for you to consider retirement. You could even help teach an online social work degree in the future. A career in social work always offers new avenues to explore – and new people to help, care for, and enjoy the company of.
This complete guide will help you to shape your future career in the field of social work, preparing you to take on university and the challenges of your first few jobs, all while remaining ambitious and upbeat about the path ahead.
Staff Writer; Roy Parker