r/socialworkjobs

Would you take a position that pays 10.7k more but you required to work in person 3 days per week . My current role only requires 2 day

Hello everyone, im almost done with my 1st yr of my msw ( thank fucking GOD) and realized that i do not want to do child welfare. i do not want to do clinical work. i do not want to work with children and do direct practice. But it seems like that is what my school is pushing us students to do. I'm really interested in macro social work and possibly getting into policy. Haven't heard much from social workers who are in that field but would love to hear feedback from anyone who is a macro social worker doing policy work!

I graduated with my bachelor of social work degree this month and currently have about $45,000 in federal student loan debt. I’ve been struggling to find entry-level social work positions in my area that accept a bachelor’s-level degree, and I’m feeling uncertain about the next steps. Pursuing a master’s in social work would cost an additional $30,000, bringing my total debt to around $75,000, but even many MSW roles I’ve researched on LinkedIn and Indeed tend to average between $60,000 and $80,000.

In an effort to build experience and earn a higher salary with my bachelor’s degree, I started a recruiting job after graduation. However, I’ve found that the work is not fulfilling for me. I’m struggling with the lack of alignment with my values, especially having to turn down many candidates due to company policies that I don’t agree with, and I don’t feel like I’m helping people in the way I had hoped to in my career.

I’m so scared my investment won’t
be worth it financially

TLDR exactly what the title says. complicated boss dynamic, need better supervision. long rant incoming.

i’m 1 year post grad in a community based behavioral health clinic. i am an outpatient therapist for adults of all diagnoses as they step down from inpatient or IOP/PHP.

my job is hard. high acuity. many cases. many complex cases. many systemic issues informing peoples suffering. much medical overlap. i’m slowly finding my footing and just now starting to feel like my clients are making progress, it feels profound to get to see people at such a pivotal moment build so much for themselves. i feel lucky and blessed to do this work 95% of the time.

my boss is…fine. there are many things contributing to our dynamic. she is well intentioned but is overworked, is not very boundaried/ chronically overshares, and she has had some questionable takes and comments over the past year. we are just generally not from similar walks of life. there is also some transference/countertransference because of my #mommyissues and she has said to me multiple times “you remind me so much of myself, i think you’re so talented and amazing and better than the rest blah blah blah” which for some might be nice but for me rubbed me the wrong way. there have been several things she’s done to explicitly communicate some kind of favoritism. i do find myself often handling her with avoidance, a weird disorganized close/far attachment dance, and a pattern of me not saying things and becoming resentful. she’s recently been a hot topic in my own therapy.

when it comes to the actual supervising, she is completely checked out. she will reschedule our regular meeting time OFTEN. she is 7-15 minutes late every. single. time. when i come to her with complex conceptual questions or high acuity cases the only didactic feedback i have gotten is “try these two worksheets” and “try asking more questions.” she will take up the entire weekly hour talking about herself and how overwhelmed she is if i don’t redirect. she will forget things we talk about week to week. she will acknowledge when i am burnt out but is not super willing to give much of a reprieve. i think she thinks im fine, which for the most part is true, but it feels like she’s not even trying to help or mentor me :( she also gets somewhat possessive and micromanage-y if i go to another supervisor within the clinic for help, and kind of speaks down on whatever guidance they do give.

i have made the decision to seek outside supervision to gain the guidance and mentorship i desperately need and that my clients deserve. i have a consultation set up with a recommendation from my own therapist and im really excited. the issue now is just letting my current one know. i will still meet with her for licensure requirements and still want to learn from her, it’s just the reality that she simply does not have the bandwidth or insight or time to properly facilitate my growth as a clinician in this moment.

any advice on how to openly communicate this to her would be helpful.

Hello everyone,

I'm a recent graduate of Social Work and Social Administration in Uganda, and believe you me, there are not many professional Social Work jobs. If you believe the job market is horrible in a first world country like the USA, it's worse than hell here! Though there are a plethora of issues in this country that need urgent Social Work intervention, there is little to no political will or funding from the government. In the private sector, what passes for Social Work is remedial rather than developmental and this exacerbates the unemployment as little to no input from local social workers is ever considered as these large NGOS just roll out their board approved "programmes" that just hire social workers on a short term basis to collect data from refugee camps and impoverished communities, but never offer full time SW jobs and the jobs that exist are mostly Minimum wage. With no funds to study a masters' degree to improve my employment prospects, I may just give up on the profession entirely.

For a profession that was not founded with the intention to make money but to enact social change, it gets rather stressing that you are left jobless for about 11 months.

Any form of advice is welcome, thanks.

Hi everyone, I posted last week about this. I have found myself in a new and unexciting position. I really would love advice or insight if you have anything.

I’m an MSW student currently searching for my generalist field placement starting this fall, and I’m feeling a bit stuck so I wanted to get some outside perspective.

So far, I’ve reached out to about 10+ sites across behavioral health, healthcare, law enforcement, and advocacy settings. This includes places like county behavioral health agencies, hospitals, police behavioral health units, forensic/child advocacy organizations, and federal agencies.

I initially tried to arrange placement at my current workplace (Child Welfare related), but that didn’t work out due to university contract restrictions and internal policy issues (one being nepotism). Since the news this morning that it is a no go, I’ve expanded my search significantly.

My field advisor is iffy. I don’t know. How it’s worked for the last month—just got assigned this advisor because there was so much turn over. I was never contacted in January for all the placement stuff. The assigned advisor quit and I fell through the cracks—is I have sent them updates and leads, they send over paperwork and a follow up email but again, super simple as it was for my work place which everyone, including my supervisor thought was going to go a different direction.

The good news is I am able to adjust my work schedule to accommodate practicum hours. Thank god for some approval :(

I’m feeling really discouraged and sad. I like having things in order + ready to go and just so worried.

My questions are:

Is this a normal number of outreach attempts at this stage?

At what point should I be worried vs just waiting for responses/follow ups?

Any advice on increasing my chances with more competitive placements like police BHU or hospital systems?

Any recommendations on where I could apply for my generalist?

I’m also open to commuting 1-2 hours away.

I just want to make sure I’m approaching this correctly and not missing something obvious.

To get my MSW or no...

Currently, I am a substance abuse counselor fully licensed for 4 years, 10 years in field overall from the ground up starting entry level in the behavioral health field and moved my way up, working at a crisis stabilization program that has a medical withdrawal management program attached (where I work in) and high-intensity residential inpatient services for clients with substance use disorders (it's an expanding jail diversion facility with a sobering center being in the process of being built.). I'm in my mid-30s, I make about $62K a year, give or take, $30-32 DOE shift differential pay, working day/swing to grave hours 11 am to 10 pm with flexibility Sun-Wed, my student loan debt is paid off which was about $10K. I don't have any biological kids and don't plan on having any, I'm married with indefinite plans of divorcing and currently cohab with my spouse as we have a $250K mortgage together with under 3% interest rate. My credit score hovers around 850. An emergency savings fund built up. And have retirement funds totaling less than my annual salary. I know given my circumstances I have lived a very fortunate life.

I have also been debating back and forth about whether to pursue my MSW to make more and be dually licensed in both MH and SUD, but I am not sure if it's worth the debt-to-income risk. I love the idea of being able to be dually licensed to better serve clients and just for my professional growth, but concerned of the financial hardship that getting my MSW will bring. As it stands even as a substance abuse counselor, I'm in high demand. There is a severe shortage of substance abuse counselors in my state. Although, being dually licensed would make even more valuable. Part of me also likes the idea of doing a lot less paperwork. I do full substance use disorder assessments and they are 20 to 40 pages each per client and I see up to two to three clients a day doing them. I'm told and have seen the paperwork for MH be a lot less, substantially so. Part of me is a bit daunted though by working with mental health clients with high acuity in mental health crisis stabilization as I know they can be mentally draining, my work offers anywhere from $28-45 an hour for dually licensed, offers to pay for half the tuition for those pursuing a master's program.

I'm also slightly worried about balancing work and school life for 2 to 3 years depending on whether I'm a part-time student and full time worker or a full-time worker part-time student. I have spent my entire 20s in school getting one bachelor's and two associate degrees 9.5 years of schooling total and I only use one associate degree and some knowledge from my bachelor's to apply towards my career. Given all my circumstances, should I consider going back to school to get my masters or know when I have done enough and to enjoy the duration of my career only licensed in substance abuse counseling as part of me feels like I haven't lived in terms of going out on vacations while my body is still physically capable.

Hello!
I got offered a new position and need some advice on what to do. I’ve been working a job doing lower-level case management for 80+ families. This entails monthly contacts, 2x home visits per year, health screenings for all children, assessments,goals, etc. the workload is a lot and I find myself, and many others, continually not meeting agency requirements. This job is taking a toll on my MH, sleep, and personal relationships. Essentially it is more reports/quantity rather than quality.

My current salary is around 45k/year. I got offered a job for 55k/year that is a smaller caseload (3-6) with weekly home visits and more intensive case work. I really want to do this, but I’m scared because I’m a current MSW student and I don’t know how I will do. I’ve done weekly home visiting with a similar caseload before, but I’m worried about protecting my MH and wellbeing during an already stressful time in my life.

Does anyone have any advice on switching careers during their MSW? The new job offers tuition reimbursement and a guaranteed place for internship, so I think I would be silly not to take it. I just want reassurance I’m doing the right thing.

I am in need of urgent money as im shifting to a new place.

I reside in mumbai and I can do bunch of things like:

- canva designs (carousel, statics, poster)

- feed design

- social media posting

- content calendar

- content ideation for a brand / business

- content creation (I can shoot product/ lifestyle videos)

basically I can handle all of what goes in social media. and I have more than 2 years of experience, I am working with a very well known skincare brand right now and I have experience in handling education, lifestyle, clothing, architectural firms, food industry, etc

if there is any advice where I can get clients that also works. I can provide portfolio or my resume as needed.

Hi all, I’m applying for my school social work certification in NY and need some clarification on the application process. I’ve tried to message/call the office of teaching initiatives, but their automated responses have been unhelpful, and the call center wouldn’t really answer my questions.

My application is in “ready for review” and I know it takes 1-4 months for an application to be evaluated. You can see the progress of your evaluation and all of the different documents/requirements. They received both my BSW&MSW Transcripts the same day, but my MSW coursework is labeled as “deficient” while my BSW is “verified met”. Has anyone had this issue before? When I called to ask if they needed further documentation for graduate coursework the person at the call center just kept saying they couldn’t change anything for me. To be clear I wasn’t asking them to, I was just looking for clarification as the process hasn’t been straightforward (at least to me). And then the other question I have been trying to get an answer to is what documentation is needed for proof of my “college supervised internship” as I have been unable to get an answer to this question either.

Any/all help or insight would be appreciated! Thank you for reading

I’m 28, and looking to change careers. I’ve been working in media distribution for the last 5 years and have worked my ass off to get to upper management, but I am so so unfulfilled. I went to college to be a teacher before dealing with mental health issues of my own derailed my plans. I wanted to be a teacher because I wanted to be able to help people, and that’s still what I want to do. I have been thinking about this for a while but just don’t even know where to start. Any help or suggestions would be immensely appreciated. Thanks in advance

I currently work as a behavioral specialist for a community behavioral health non profit. I have a BSW and I’m unlicensed. I plan to take the test in June. I do enjoy therapy but I don’t want to limit myself with that. I will be leaving my job for I am moving to a new city. I want to broaden my job search. What are some roles I could apply for with having my BSW (incase I don’t pass) where I can still help people but less people interaction if that makes sense.

Houston, Texas

I am in the process of going to school for BSW with the VR&E program thru the VA. Part of these intial steps i have to provide 3 job postings to my councelor job a job i could theoretically apply for after completing this program.

my issue is that 99% of posts ive read on google/Indeed/ZipRecruiter are for MSW level, LCSW.

i have no issue continuing education for a MSW. Its just i have to do this first, and i cannot find anything.

The only non LCSW posting are for people who have zero education.

When i search, i used keyword "social worker" and sort by entry level.

Maybe im looking in the wrong place? Job market **that** bad?

There does seem to be many opportunities for LCSW in my area, so thats promising.

Any help will be appreicated.

Hello, I’m considering going back to school for my MSW/LMSW. I currently have a psych degree and former case management experience. My main issue is being unsure if I’ll be able to find a job. I know I don’t want to work in a direct therapy role, a role that requires home visits, or to be on call.

Any advice of what roles I should consider?

I left my job recently and accepted a similar position with a supplier that works with my old company, with a much better salary. When I sat down with my manager to submit my resignation, I tried to keep it from seeming personal, so I told him I wasn't going to a competing company or even staying in the same field. He asked me a few questions that seemed sincere but were fake-sincere, as if he was just trying to understand my reasons, and in the end I found myself telling him where I was going.

About 90 minutes later, he called me back into his office and started yelling and talking about how shady that supplier was, and that he planned to contact them directly, and that he would threaten to cancel any upcoming agreements if they continued with my hiring process. Thank God, nothing happened because of that.

I really did follow most of the usual advice people give when you leave a job, but I still said more than I should have. That could have put my new job at risk. This was a manager I genuinely trusted, but I learned the hard way that people who tell you they have your back can still throw you under the bus if it benefits them. Don't repeat my mistake. When you submit your resignation, especially if you're not interested in any counteroffer, be polite and professional, but give them as few details as possible about your next step.

Hi! I (26F) quit working for CPS. I worked in investigations for three years. I was very burnt out with the case loads and was working wayyyy too much. I absolutely loved the work I was doing, but the case loads became too high to manage and I was burnt out to the point of having health issues. I am severely lost on what to do for my career and will take any advice. I think I put my worth on my career in cps and am now struggling feeling like I’m not doing something worthy in society. I debated social work but I am hesitant to get my masters if I won’t like it. I value new experiences and am concerned if I pick a field I won’t stick to it. I’d like to find my calling :) anything helps!

I received my MSW at the end of January and received a job in a private practice. I’m just shy of 3 months seeing clients in the field.

I applied to another job on a whim at a local non-profit clinic and behavioral health urgent care.

I’m not sure what to do and have 3 days to decide.

PROS of current job:
Flexible hours
Set my own schedule
Company car with personal use
Praised and thanked for the work I do
Light caseload
Minimal documentation requirements

CONS of current job:
Limited supervision
Don’t feel challenged to grow in the way I’m looking for
Feelings of stuckness
Lack of depth in clinical work

PROS of new job:
$9k pay increase, with a generous retention bonus
Opportunities for trainings in house
Set schedule
Less travel/ closer to home
Increased exposure to different clientele
Nonprofit (PSLF possibility)

CONS of new job:
Much heavier productivity expectations
Less downtime
More documentation requirements
Less flexibility in time-off

My other concern is that I feel terrible for potentially leaving my current clients. The only saving grace is it’s been less than three months- so although I have rapport established I don’t think it would be a devastating loss.

Thoughts?

I’m moving back to Virginia and I’ve been looking for LCSW jobs and I’m struggling to find jobs that pay enough? I have experience in both private practice and nonprofit work. I’d prefer not to go back to private practice right now due to the time it takes to build a caseload and my needs for a consistent paycheck while I settle.
I specialize in working with adult, children/adolescent, and family survivors of DV/SA and I’m trained in EMDR. Other than a private practice, Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, or Colonial Behavioral Health, I’m not finding anything. Any suggestions on where I should look?

Hi, I am wondering how to break into medical or hospital sw post graduation? I am finishing up my MSW and my internship was at an outpatient co-occuring clinic. I would like to get my foot in the door in a hospital setting but unsure if I am able to do so/qualify for a role like that. Any advice would be appreciated. TY :)