Careers in Social Work: The Ideal Fit for Good Parents

By Staff Reporter - 02 Nov '20 10:19AM
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  • Careers in Social Work: The Ideal Fit for Good Parents
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When you become a parent, your life's coordinates realign, and your priorities shift fundamentally. With new, young, and much-loved members of the family to take care of, you'll be less concerned about yourself and more interested in caring for those around you while providing the means for your family to lead a happy life. In light of this pleasant adjustment, you'll be looking for a job that caters towards your new priorities - and for many thousands of parents, that takes the form of social work. Here's how you'll develop your exciting new career in this incredibly rewarding field.

Why Social Work?

First, let's look at some of the benefits of social work and the trappings of the kind of roles that you'll be taking once you're fully qualified as a social worker.

Social work is fundamentally flexible, a huge boon for parents who are keen to establish a kinder work-life balance after they've had children. You'll be able to build hours that suit you, enabling you to share childcare throughout your kids' early lives.

This kind of work is also incredibly rewarding. You'll be helping vulnerable people lead the lives they want to lead - and you'll be helping society as a whole become healthier, more connected, and more caring. As a parent, this fits well with your new priorities - enabling you to spread your care throughout your working life.

Finally, a career in social work will enable you to make real change in society, starting from your first position as a caregiver and developing into the kinds of influential roles that can help change policy, inform approaches to care and shape the world around you for the better. You'll be able to leave a positive legacy for your children to inherit as they grow older themselves. 

How to Build a Social Work Career

With plenty of benefits to enjoy and lots to learn, you're going to need to begin your journey towards qualification for a social work role right away. This means getting yourself into an academic institution that'll guide you through the training you need to become a social worker. Parents tend to prefer to study online as mature students and are therefore likely to value an online social work degree over those degrees that you take in person, living close to campus. 

An online social work degree will deliver you a bachelor's in social work - which will be important for the roles you'll be applying for on graduation. When you take your online social work degree, you'll be able to fit it around your domestic duties like taking the kids to school or making meals for your family. You'll also be able to study while working part-time in a job, which will ensure that you continue to provide for your family as you gain the skills necessary to become a social worker.

Studying at University

Getting into university is your first challenge. Universities cannot accept every applicant for social work courses, and the online social work course is no different. As such, you're going to need to take time on your application, making sure you're presenting yourself as a responsible, driven, and academically capable individual. For a handful of applicants, this might even mean retaking college exams for you to possess the requisite grades to apply to the university course of your choosing. 

Applying to study online gives you a greater chance of being accepted onto a course. The online social work degree has been developed with parents, mature students, and low-income individuals in mind, which makes it the perfect fit for your career development in social work. Remember that studying for an online social work degree is all about time management. One of your biggest challenges is planning ahead and making the time to hit your deadlines and study for your course throughout the months and years that you're attaining your certificate. Creating a study in your home, away from the children, is a great way to build the space you need to learn and train for your future social work career.

Completing Your Course

Unfortunately, thousands of people across the US drop out of their degree programs each year. This is reflected in some online social work degree programs, which require consistent work from their students. Parents sometimes face difficult time management challenges; what with children to entertain and raise, so this is something to factor in when you sign up for your course. You'll also need to ensure you're able to commit to your course financially, either through a loan or through earnings that you put aside each month to complete your online social work degree.

As the months roll on, you hit your deadlines and achieve your top grades; you'll be more motivated than ever to get to the end of your online social work degree. You'll know that, come graduation, you'll be able to put the skills you've gained to practice and find a full-time position that will help you pay off your student loan and build a wonderful work-life balance around your family. 

When you plan ahead, you'll make extra sure that you'll make it to the finish line getting that all-important piece of paper that qualifies you to work in the field of social work and care in the future.

Your First Job

You'll already have experience working in a litany of different jobs from the period of your life before you had children. This means that you'll be able to add your online social work degree certificate to a long and well-developed CV to send to employers. It also means that you'll be used to the hoops you're expected to jump through when searching for a new job. 

This sits you in good stead to convert your degree into a first social working job speedily upon graduation. Holding the qualification that you've just been rewarded with; you'll be eligible for many exciting jobs in your local area. Here's how to pick the right one for you and your family:

  • Which jobs offer flexi-work, and which positions are well-suited to parents who are interested in building their career around their domestic responsibilities?

  • How much will you be looking to earn in your first job? Can you accept a lower wage for more flexibility, or will you be looking to pay off loans with a highly paid job initially?

  • What are employees saying about the employers that you're looking at? Find them on LinkedIn, or on employer review site like Glassdoor, to get an idea of who you'll be working for.

  • Are there any other benefits that you'd like included in your employment package? Will dental or health insurance be offered to your whole family?

These are the key indicators that you should ask about in an interview or check on job specifications before applying for roles to find the position that suits you upon your graduation from your online social work degree. 

Developing Your Career

The wonderful thing about a career in social work is that you'll always be stimulated, challenged, and rewarded for your efforts. From day one, you'll be thrown into your work, and you'll learn on the job those skills that an online social work degree couldn't teach you. You'll also have plenty of opportunities to progress as the weeks and months go on.

One of your first tasks in your new job is to ensure that you're providing the best possible service, in care and conscientiousness, to those with whom you work. You want to make an immediate good impression with your employer, and build rapport with your clients, too.

But, once you've settled into your role, it's time to consider your next move. Are you looking to get a more senior position after a year or two of working at your current level? Would you like to move into management or public advocacy? Or do you want to provide care to a specific set of people in the future? Set these goals early to know which opportunities to take and which to pass up in the months ahead. 

Parenting While Caring

As mentioned above, your career in social work has been undertaken on the assumption that you'll be able to spend more time with your children as a result of training in your online social work degree. It's also a career that you've expected to chime well with your new maternal or paternal instincts, and with the caring, giving-back attitude that you've been fostering as a new parent. 

So, it'll come as little surprise that this is an industry that's particularly aware of the specific challenges that social workers might face when they're working alongside raising a family. You're able, in your new role as a social worker, to put in the hours where necessary to help those you're working with - but also to take significant time off when you need more time with your nearest and dearest, too. Make it clear from the outset that you're prepared to work hard in your role, but that you have domestic responsibilities that you want to take seriously, too.

Career Progression

If the online social work degree is the starter gun of your career in social work and care, the end of your first lap is the first years of your career. Those first years will cement you within the field and make your vocational choice into a significant set of skills that you can apply in more senior roles in different organizations. Having put in the time at the lowest level of the social work ladder, it's time to look to the next rung. 

How can you do this? Well, one way you'll progress your career is by knowing which avenue you'd like to go down. This might include:

  • Management - would you like to manage other social workers and plan their weekly routines and client schedules, now that you know what it's like to work as a social worker?

  • Publicity - would you be interested in heading up the communications for a social work firm? Would you like to be the public face of the organization or the industry that you love?

  • Teaching - do you feel that your calling is teaching and lecturing to the next crop of online social work degree applicants? This could be the path for those keen to raise the next class of diligent social workers.

  • Advising - have you seen gaps in the state's provision of social work and care facilities? Would you like to shape the future of social care? An advisory role would help you do just that. 

  • Senior Roles - are you interested in providing a premium level of care to premium clients? This is another path that you can take to advance your career.

Valuing Family Time

Even as you work towards these more ambitious goals, you'll know that your parenting is the real priority in your life. The care, love, and memories, you're able to share with your young children means everything to you, and even when work becomes stressful. You're required to spend more time away from home than you'd like, you'll still be thinking about the next time you're able to relax in the company of your partner and your children. 

Throughout your social working career, make sure that you focus on your family, working hard in your job, and playing hard when you get home. It's the reason you got into social work in the first place, to afford that extra time with your family, and to bring less stress and less tension back into your household. Talk to colleagues who've been in the job for years to get their opinions on the work-life balance that they were able to develop - and take their lead in how you can curate your own fulfilling life between your home and the social work that you perform. 

The guide provided above is designed to help parents retrain in social work to enjoy a job for life that's rewarding on the job, and rewarding once you get home to your family, too. Take your degree today to perform that first step into this new and exciting career. 

Copyright © 2017 News Everyday
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of newseveryday.com

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