Career Path
In their life, people have many career paths from which they can choose. Some of them prefer to work with machines, others with numbers. Personally, I have always wanted to work and interact with people. The basis of social work is caring about others – without a desire to help, one cannot fully understand the idea of this job. Throughout my life, I have seen many difficulties that plague society – poverty, addiction, abuse, trauma, and unemployment.
For most persons with mental illnesses and disabilities, the problems are not limited to the doctor’s office. All of these issues affect people in the long-term, permeating all spheres of their existence. I believe that with social work, I can make a difference and lift a small amount of these burdens, helping people to adjust or return to a less encumbered life. Here, the compassion that lies at the basis of this profession appealed to me when I was choosing my career path.
Another aspect of social work that interests me is the system-wide approach that the service chooses. While other helping professions focus on one side of living, such as health or education, social workers look at all elements of one’s environment. One’s relationships with family and friends, school and work experiences, mental and physical health affect people in different ways. Moreover, an individual’s community and place of residence also have an impact on their life. A social worker should pay attention to all mentioned above factors and more to provide assistance. Such a deep understanding of the connections between different areas is what makes social work not only useful but also exciting.
I have a strong desire to work with older adults and to advocate for them, especially in the field of better access to healthcare. Older people experience many hardships, just like other adults – they may live in poverty or experience violence. However, they also do not always have reliable support systems, and their fragility may influence their interaction with the outside world. As a result, they are a vulnerable group that needs professional help.
Apart from that, the elderly with limited resources also face pressure from their families, economic issues, and a level of expectations that puts more burden on them than they can handle. In such cases, I see social work as a necessity and a framework to mitigate the effects of these circumstances. All people in a vulnerable position deserve help, but older populations’ unique health needs and age-related problems require attention.
To explain why I am drawn to advocating for better healthcare for the elderly, I can recall my personal experience caring for my grandmother. When I was young, she was one of the most important people in my life. I saw firsthand what human interaction, attention, and support could do for improving one’s wellbeing. This experience has demonstrated to me the vital role of compassion and led me to this profession – by caring for my grandmother, I learned to work with people and understand their needs. Now, I see that social work is essential in improving older people’s living. The multi-faceted approach of this profession and the foundational belief in social support lead to strategies and changes that help people rather than any other entities to thrive.
Skills and Experiences
To become a social worker and make a meaningful contribution to any agency, a person should have soft skills as well as professional knowledge and experience. First of all, the basis of the profession is service orientation. As expressed above, I possess a strong desire to help people, acting as a source of support and advocacy. This implies that I want to examine clients’ problems and try my best to resolve them while also taking action to change any policies or environments that lower people’s quality of life. I also have developed interpersonal skills – I like talking to people and listening to them.
My life experience, as well as my education, allowed me to perfect active listening, and I am prepared to give my undivided attention to my clients. I also aim to talk to people in a simple way, avoiding vagueness and complexity. In many cases, the relationship between a social worker and a client is built on mutual understanding, which cannot be reached if the specialist is using scientific language.
Apart from that, I also pay much attention to self-organization and time-management. Social work is a time-consuming and challenging job that requires one to follow a schedule and be attentive to details. Thus, during my training, I studied time-management practices and ways to stay organized in papers, plans, and ideas. As a result, I believe that I will be able to take on the responsibility at my future place of work and not be as overwhelmed with the caseload as I would be without the preparation. Lastly, my critical and creative thinking complement one another and allow me to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of various strategies.
Social work relies on the individual approach to each case -while many problems can be categorized, their combination and people’s personal experiences make each scenario unique. Therefore, creative thinking is vital for establishing relationships and coming up with practical solutions.
As for the professional qualities and experiences, I have gathered much knowledge during my education and practice. The theoretical foundation of social work theories and ideas from adjacent disciplines gives me an opportunity to find the roots of clients’ problems and see which actions and thoughts drive people’s behavior. Moreover, the information from the existing scholarship offers formulaic approaches that are necessary to start examining any social work case. I have also looked into other spheres of research, including organizational development and culture. This furthered my understanding of the systems that surround people’s everyday lives.
Finally, I gained experience while advocating for communities and reviewing case studies. I learned about proper documentation, reporting, communication, ways to approach clients’ problems, and other skills necessary for the job. Thus, such actions as case formulation or filling the required reports will not be new to me during my employment. I already possess some experience interacting with clients as well as colleagues who supervised my activity or consulted me. The combination of my soft skills, theoretical knowledge, and practical base will make a positive contribution to any social work agency.
Personal and Professional Growth
In the upcoming year, I aim to deepen my knowledge of the problems that older adults face in their surrounding environments. This, together with other theoretical information, will help me in my future career. Moreover, I want to improve my computer skills – information technology can benefit social work in many ways, including digitization of documents and client data, access to research, and communication. Lastly, I aim to improve my resilience to stressful situations that may drain me emotionally, mentally, and even physically. I will study various stress-coping mechanisms and techniques to achieve this goal.