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Social work is very much the glue that holds modern society together. Without it, you wonder where we would be. Who would serve the needy?
Knowing whether you should go into it isn’t always obvious. You like the idea from a distance, but will you really enjoy it when you start actually doing it and working with people on the street?
1. You’re Passionate About Helping People
Sometimes, people can’t help being down on their luck. Life deals them a poor hand and they wind up in serious trouble. In many cases, it’s not their fault. And even if it is, many people want a second chance.
If you’re the type of person who’s passionate about helping other people who have hit upon hard times, then social work might be just the career for you. Thanks to the chaotic nature of reality, people can find themselves in emotional and financial trouble all the time. They lose their job or their relationship breaks down and it all goes wrong.
That’s where you feel the urge to step in and help. You’re the safety net that people need to put their lives back together and carry on.
2. You Think Objectively
It’s easy to feel angry or disgusted by some of the situations you encounter as a social worker. You never quite know what is going to happen on a shift. Some family situations are appalling.
The trick here is to ensure that you remain objective. Your goal throughout your work is to protect the vulnerable and improve people’s lives. And for that reason, you need to follow a tried-and-tested protocol, no matter how challenging that might seem.
If you’re the sort of person who can do that, then you could be a great candidate for social work. When you do a degree in social work, you learn to put your opinions and emotions to one side and carry out the job that needs to be done. It can be hard sometimes from an emotional point of view. But society needs rational people who can see the greater good.
3. You Are Persistent
Getting people to make changes in their lives can be a challenge. Most individuals follow the same habits all their lives, never really altering what they do. It often takes considerable outside influences from persistent people, including social workers, to see meaningful improvements.
Think about how challenging it can be to get a person to change their diet and eat more vegetables. It often takes months. And even then, they’re still not in great shape.
The same goes for practically every other type of dysfunctional behavior. Getting people to adjust their characters isn’t something you do overnight. It takes time and effort. It doesn’t occur automatically.
4. You Have A Compassionate Streak
While social work requires objectivity, it also needs compassionate people. Feelings play a secondary role, but you still need to have a general awareness of the kinds of situations that people find themselves living in. In many cases, there is blame. But social workers remember that they are people too and that if they had found themselves in similar life circumstances, they might have done the same.
Being compassionate isn’t about automatically forgiving everyone or assuming that everyone has noble intentions. It’s just about realizing that you’re not perfect and so it is not fair to insist that everyone else is.
5. You Like Working Out Of The Office
Working in an office environment suits some people, but not everyone. There will always be individuals who do better when allowed to roam free, going from home to home, or clinic to clinic. Being able to get around town gives you a sense of agency and freedom and ensures that you’re not continually tied to the desk, waiting for the time on the clock to run out.
When you are a social worker, you never quite know the situations in which you’re going to find yourself. In the morning, you could be at a family address and in the afternoon at a shelter or even in a police station. It’s the range of activities that makes the work so exciting. And that’s ultimately one of the main reasons why people choose it.
If you’ve been thinking about becoming a social worker and want to do something profoundly interesting for a living, then it’s time to give up the day job and make the switch.
Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash
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