The Work

Social Work can come off as a very tricky subject and or interest to study in college. If you are very into helping people and in a way trying to help make the “world” an all around better place, don’t mind how much money you are really making, how tight it may be for a while to get by, but really have that devotion to help, then Social Work is the perfect career to be focused in on and to study. Yes, it may get very stressful at times, require the above normal amount of school to even get into a good field of the work(which include you to have a bachelor and master degrees), take years before you really even go anywhere with the career, but as long as you are devoted to make change, and are very patient in waiting, you will be just fine.

Choosing the career in social work can at times be very difficult. Reasons being, you are not always going to come out satisfied with the results of a “patient”, the outcome of a case, or in general always be making the right judgments/decisions. As an article in the Washington Informer said, ” They(social workers) daily bear the responsibility of making tough decisions that place them in unpopular positions with both the families and the systems they serve. Yet, many workers go about their responsibilites and protect many vulnerable and at risk children. Their actions on behalf of the families and communites usually go unnoticed by the public. But, when a tragedy occurs they are the first to be blamed.”  And as  mentioned in my esscence blog, for these workers it is crucial to their lives to know when to let things go and to leave it at the job, instead of bringing it home and letting it affect their lives. Their are so many different aspects that a social worker has to deal with in deciding whether to become one or not. Job wages are a huge deal to almost every person within the United states now especially with the prices of just living such as:

• Owning a car
• Owning a house
• Buying Groceries
• Having a family

On http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos060.htm it says,”Median annual earnings of child, family, and school social workers were $37,480 in May 2006. The middle 50 percent earned between $29,590 and $49,060. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $24,480, and the top 10 percent earned more than $62,530.” This here is a perfectly clear example of how life might not come as smoothly as it may for some other professions. One of the most obvious questions that is out their with this work is looking at where you would start, that’s even if you have your masters. So where you would start and slowly work your way up, because the top ten percent are those who have stayed in the field for about twenty years or so. But as you look at Social Workers now and those who are studying to become one, do you think they are really looking at how much money they are going to make in the future, how much school they are going to have to put into it, and how long it will possibly even take them to get to the sufficient paying jobs? Or do you think they are more focused on helping the people around them?

Citations:
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos060.htm
The Washington Informer: Feb. 14-20 2008, Vol. 44 pg. 47 (the author was unknown)

Image: