Making a career in the area of social work can mean giving up a lot of things.
Many jobs in this arena cause employees to keep odd hours, and social workers can find themselves working everywhere from the local Starbucks in between meetings to a child’s front porch trying to talk to his parents about how school is going.
Sometimes these odd hours and the lack of consistency can make an already difficult job even more challenging.
As in all things, there are two sides to the coin. The other side contains many reasons why earning your Master’s of Social Work might be a really smart move for you.
Here are five reasons that social work might fit well with your career goals.
Choice in employers
You can work in several different jobs with an MSW degree. You could work in a school setting, working with children, their parents, and their teachers to help the child succeed in school. You might work for the government in child welfare, or in the prison system.
Social workers are even needed in hospitals, helping families navigate new situations and find the care that they need. Even though these jobs are very different, they demonstrate the different areas that social workers are needed in our society.
Adjustable work hours
Social work gets a bad rap for the hours that workers have to keep, but that is not always the case. Social workers in certain areas keep very typical hours, working during the school day or set hours inside of a hospital for example.
Additionally, the government is beginning to recognize the stress of inconsistent hours on social workers. In England social workers are being given the chance to work more from home in an attempt to ease their workload and provide more flexibility.
Forgiving student loans
Paying for higher education is a burden that many Americans have to bear. Approximately 70% of college graduates have taken out student loans. These loans can take decades to pay off, causing graduates stress and anxiety as they are just starting out in their chosen field.
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Luckily, the American government has recognized the importance of working in helping professions and has created the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. This can be a huge benefit for those who feel called to work in social work but aren’t sure how to pay for their education.
Changing lives
Most anyone heading in to social work as a profession has a goal of helping people, whether that be students, the elderly, or convicts trying to fit back into society.
What you might not know is that interaction with a social worker might be the most impactful time of a person’s life, and your work can change their entire trajectory, helping to put them on a path to success.
Read some of these stories here, and remember that for each story written down there are thousands just like it that haven’t yet been.
Job stability
The importance of having a stable job can not be overstated. Working in social work provides stability, and the field of social work is projected to grow at the rate of 11% by 2028.
Though social work can be a challenging career, the many benefits and perks of the job are helping more and more women in 2022 discover that it’s just the path for them!
