Are you on a quest for a career with purpose and meaning? Do you wish to join a profession that offers job satisfaction? If the answers to the questions fall anywhere near affirmative, look no further than social work.
Undeniably, social work is an exciting and amazingly fulfilling career. The professionals of this discipline work tirelessly to enhance people’s lives, appertaining to diverse backgrounds, specifically concentrating on the impoverished, persecuted, and vulnerable ones.
These individuals possess a strong desire to help people, assuage their sufferings, and make the whole world a better place. While it’s true that the rewards of working as a social worker aren’t always materialistic or financial; however, these workers are generally concerned about bringing a positive change in the world.
The ambit of this field is vast. For instance, it encompasses one-on-one counseling to individuals with mental health illnesses, assisting young adults with academic and career advice, and helping families. Considering this purview, you may find social workers in a broad and diverse array of work settings. These include government offices, schools and colleges, police departments, healthcare facilities, clinics, and correctional facilities.
Still, have some ambiguities? Here are some of the benefits of considering a fascinating and rewarding career in social work that preponderate the drawbacks:
Advancement opportunities
The field of social work offers heaps of growth opportunities for its professionals, specifically those with advanced education. Today, various schools offer online MSW programs no GRE, for students who wish to enhance their expertise while flexibly juggling their studies. The GRE exemption works the best for full-time social workers who are short-handed on time and can’t prepare for the entrance exam for the advanced degree.
MSW programs are a combination of academics as well as hands-on experience. These programs emphasize clinical social work and provide extensive psychotherapy, research, and statistics training. And this, in turn, enables social workers to incorporate core values into their work even before they graduate.
What’s more? Individuals with an MSW degree can become eligible for advanced supervisory, administrative, and management positions. Thus, providing aspiring workers the opportunity to create social welfare policies, lead teams, initiate programs and implement them to build an equitable and inclusive world.
Various career pathways
Most people believe that government-run offices and agencies are the only employment areas for social workers. However, nothing could be further from the truth. This rewarding field offers countless career pathways and work settings for social workers.
You can work in non-profit organizations, schools, universities, prisons, health centers, rehabs, nursing homes, law firms, churches, or insurance organizations. Also, it’s entirely contingent upon you if you wish to branch off to a new domain to become a probation officer, pediatric social worker, or mental health counselor.
It’s an incredibly versatile field that offers advanced job positions to individuals with increased educational credentials and experience. For instance, being a social worker, you can choose a role that involves direct client care, advocacy or policy development, or other notable areas.
In sum, there isn’t a single delineation for social work. Instead, it all boils down to figuring out a job position that aligns with your personality and piques your interest.
New routines and challenges every year
The job of social work is way too different from a traditional 9-5 daily grind. No two days are the same in this profession; you will encounter new challenges, new tasks, and highly complex situations. It’s safe to say that, as a social worker, boredom most certainly will not be a part of your career.
There might be times when you will have to listen intently to the story of domestic violence. Likewise, you may provide counseling sessions to your clientele one day. And the next day, you may find yourself sleuthing and probing claims.
Moreover, you might have to deal with vulnerable communities and mentally unstable and incapacitated people. Depending on your role, your job responsibilities might encompass working closely with these populations and helping them contend with life.
These traumatic circumstances can indeed leave you mentally drained and succumb to burnout. However, offering support and creating a better world for such people will remind you of the reasons you signed up for when joining this immensely fulfilling career.
An opportunity to make a positive impact
It’s next to impossible to discuss the benefits of a social work degree without mentioning that it allows individuals to impact society positively and offer tangible benefits to entire communities.
Most people want to induce a positive change in the world, but they are uncertain about where to begin and what they should do exactly? Being a social worker, you are uniquely positioned to propose solutions to people’s problems, act with integrity, and provide social justice.
Every day, you may have to come across people who are abuse victims, homeless, drug addicts, refugees, or anyone at their lowest point in life. You might have a chance to help such people and take measures to ensure challenges won’t crop up in the future.
You may turn out to be a person who brings light to people’s lives at the end of the day. But, of course, it requires pouring in a great deal of hard work, and change doesn’t happen overnight. However, executing meaningful work can help inspire change and fill you with personal fulfillment.
An ever-growing field
Since there will always be some oppressed and vulnerable communities and children; therefore, the demand for these hardworking professionals will never cease. The fact is, social work is the most sought-after career, one that has been evolving at a rapid pace.
As per the BLS stats, the field of social work is likely to grow by 12% by 2030, translating to 78,300 job positions in the upcoming decade. And this demonstrates exciting news for ambitious social workers. With a diverse range of job positions, individuals can probably find a way to get their foot in this fulfilling field and perform meaningful work.
Besides, the salary of social workers is also rewarding. The median pay of these professionals is approximately $50,390 each year. Nonetheless, this amount can differ depending on the organization’s location, size, and type. Again, individuals with high levels of experience and education can enjoy high earning potential. However, students who join this profession without completing formal education may find it challenging to make a decent salary.
Final Words
Social work, unquestionably, is an emotionally demanding yet immensely gratifying career, specifically if you are passionate about helping those in need. Sure, the work settings are taxing since serving vulnerable individuals and communities can, at times, be perturbing.
However, whether you work with young adults, senior citizens, or entire family units, the work allows you to make a real and active difference in people’s lives. And when the day comes to an end, you return home fully content with this altruistic career. Not many people feel the same about their work. And this fills the person with a sense of pride.
All that’s to say is – a social work career doesn’t only revolve around what you receive. Instead, it centers on how predisposed you are to work for the welfare of humanity. Therefore, if you are compassionate, unbiased, insightful, tolerant, and understanding, then a career in social work is most certainly your calling.
