A social worker helps individuals, families, and communities cope with challenges by providing support, resources, and advocacy. They play a vital role in improving people’s well-being, especially in areas related to mental health, housing, child welfare, and crisis intervention.
Social workers support efficiency by connecting people with the right services, collaboration by working with schools, hospitals, and agencies, and strategy execution by helping organizations meet their social impact goals.
Typical responsibilities include:
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), here’s the salary distribution for the occupation category “Social Workers, All Other” as of May 2023:
These figures reflect median annual wages across social work roles not separately categorized—such as clinical, school, healthcare, and child welfare practitioners.
Social work is a profession that blends formal education with practical, people-focused skills. Here’s what you typically need to enter and succeed in the field:
Most social work positions require at least a bachelor’s degree, though advanced roles often need further study.
Social workers need both interpersonal and technical skills to serve clients effectively.
Hands-on experience is highly valued and often essential.
While not always required, certifications can enhance credibility and open new opportunities.
With the right mix of education, skills, and experience, aspiring social workers can build rewarding careers that make a direct impact on people’s lives.
Social workers are in demand across multiple industries because their skills in advocacy, counseling, and resource coordination are essential in supporting individuals and communities. They work in both public and private sectors, often in roles that require compassion, problem-solving, and a deep understanding of human behavior.
Common industries that hire social workers:
Social work offers a variety of career paths, allowing professionals to advance from entry-level positions to leadership roles. Progression depends on education, experience, specialization, and licensure.
Typical career path includes:
If you’re interested in becoming a social worker or strengthening your skills in the field, there are many learning options available—from online platforms to formal university programs. Your choice will depend on your career goals, budget, and preferred pace of learning.
Online Learning Platforms:
Traditional Education Paths:
Whether you’re exploring the basics or working toward licensure, online platforms like Skill Success make it easy to learn at your own pace while balancing other commitments.
Health Educators and Community Health Workers
Marriage and Family Therapists
Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists
Psychologists
Rehabilitation Counselors
School and Career Counselors
Social and Community Service Managers
Social and Human Service Assistants
Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors
Social workers possess a specific set of traits that make them highly effective and just perfect for the job. If you think you have some or all of these traits, you might want to consider a career in social work and become a social worker.
Helping others should come as naturally as possible to you if you want to consider a social work career. If you feel an urge to help out whenever you come across someone in need, or you are always willing to lend assistance to anyone who might need it, you would indeed make a wonderful social worker. If helping others is your calling in life then you shouldn’t hesitate to start your LCSW career today, there are tons of people who need you to work with them! Feeling a certain satisfaction in helping out a fellow would make this career a fulfilling and meaningful one for you. Your job will immerse you in an environment where most or all of your clients need some form of help. You can either help them directly or assist them by referring them to professionals or resources that could alleviate their situation.
Social workers deal with a lot of needy clients at any given workday. Some of these clients may be uncooperative, emotional, or even aggressive. You need to exhibit patience in order to do your job well. You also need a ton of patience to get you through each day of dealing with individuals and communities who will have varying needs and different personalities. Depending on your field of work, you might be dealing with children, older adults, the chronically ill, or those with substance abuse problems. These people will display different reactions when interacting with you, so you have to be patient with each of them for them to be able to get the help that they need.
You know when someone needs something. You know when someone is in trouble or in pain. You are sensitive and intuitive. Social workers succeed at their jobs because they are able to identify and address a problem early on so that it does not worsen and become untreatable. This not only applies to health concerns, but also psychological, behavioral, financial, and social problems that a client might be facing currently or might face in the near future. You should be able to somewhat foresee and perceive possible problems based on the situation that your client is currently in.
Dealing with a lot of people in distress can cause a lot of stress for someone who does not know how to set boundaries. You need to know how and when to be objective as a social worker if you want to be effective in your job. There is no use being emotional over the state of your clients as this may cloud your judgment and make you vulnerable to making wrong decisions at work or affecting you so much that you would not be able to function at all. Setting limits as to how much you can emotionally immerse yourself means that you can keep a level head, maintain an objective eye, see things from a practical perspective, and know-how to guide your clients to the best possible solution.
Compassion and empathy are the foundations of this sort of career. Although you need to remain composed and rational at all times, you should have a deep desire to make life better for other people burning inside of you, and being empathetic means that you try to understand others’ situations without becoming emotionally imbalanced yourself. Having compassion means seeing the struggles and needs of others and not looking away or ignoring it. It means seeing someone else’s needs and wanting to make things better for them.
To become an effective social worker, you need to develop the following skills:
You will be conducting a lot of one-on-one sessions with individuals or face-to-face interactions with families and other professionals, such as healthcare and legal providers. Being able to communicate effectively makes your job a whole lot easier since it allows people to understand you better. When collaborating with other professionals, you should be able to convey information with consistency and precision for the good of your clients. When talking with clients, you should be able to explain in simple terms for them to understand their situation as well as their options to address it.
A huge part of a social worker’s job is to listen to the client’s needs. You need to develop active listening in order to really understand your client’s situation. Learn to ask open-ended questions that encourage your clients to open up more to you and tell you a more in-depth and comprehensive idea of their situation. When you fully understand their challenges is the only time that you will be able to come up with lasting and effective solutions.
You need to be a people-person to succeed at this job. You should be able to foster positive working relationships with colleagues so that you can collaborate easily and work as a team to achieve the goal of making your clients’ lives better. You should also be able to establish enough trust between you and your clients so that they feel comfortable opening up to you about the things that are troubling them.
Paperwork, documentation, treatment plans—these are but a few of the things that a social worker needs to keep up with on a daily basis. You will have to handle a whole host of these because you will most likely be dealing with multiple clients who have varying cases and different planned interventions. Having strong organizational skills helps you keep yourself on top of the paperwork. It will help you work more efficiently since you will not be scrambling to keep up with your files on top of the interactions that you need to have with clients and colleagues.
If you are a social worker, you need to be an effective problem solver. Your clients come to you for help whenever they have problems. They look up to you to provide them with solutions because it is likely that they cannot come up with any. Therefore, you should be innovative and smart enough to come up with something that will effectively put an end to or halt the progress of their problem. On top of that, the solutions you provide should be practical enough for your clients to be able to comfortably comply with them. For example, you should consider the distance, cost, time, and effort that your client will have to spend to avail of a service.
These are the best schools that offer programs in Social Work:
Here are a few things you can do to find job openings for social work positions:
The government is consistently in need of social workers because social welfare is one of its basic responsibilities. Social workers have a fixed demand within the federal government such that according to govloop, there are 8,000 social work-related positions within the government at any given time. You can apply to websites such as USAJOBS or GovernmentJobs.
Private rehab centers, hospitals, and hospice facilities are only a few of the institutions that also employ social workers. You can simply go to your nearby private institution and find out if they need social workers. You can also go directly to their websites and regularly check out their careers or job opportunities page in case of a job opening.
If you want to do a broader search and you don’t really mind whether you are employed by the federal government or a private entity, you can simply go to your favorite job search websites and look for job openings for social workers. The upside in looking for jobs in such sites is that you can upload a resume that is ready for any potential employer to scan through.
Wages for social workers may vary from field to field. It is understandable that clinical social workers earn more than nonclinical social workers because of their specialized job description. However, there are also discrepancies in terms of wages depending on the state that you choose to practice. Below is a table displaying pay differential for social workers across all states:
| State | 2019 Mean Annual Wage |
|---|---|
| Hawaii | $81,520 |
| Rhode Island | $74,520 |
| Massachusetts | $74,390 |
| New Hampshire | $74,160 |
| Georgia | $73,830 |
| Washington | $73,160 |
| Alaska | $72,530 |
| Nevada | $72,450 |
| Maryland | $71,820 |
| Virginia | $71,600 |
| New Jersey | $71,420 |
| California | $71,020 |
| South Dakota | $67,700 |
| New York | $67,580 |
| Vermont | $67,470 |
| Connecticut | $66,060 |
| Illinois | $65,830 |
| West Virginia | $65,510 |
| Idaho | $65,170 |
| Kansas | $64,950 |
| Indiana | $63,010 |
| Minnesota | $62,890 |
| Delaware | $62,630 |
| Nebraska | $62,040 |
| Missouri | $60,770 |
| State | 2019 Mean Annual Wage |
|---|---|
| Arizona | $60,540 |
| Texas | $60,240 |
| Iowa | $60,070 |
| North Dakota | $59,960 |
| Alabama | $59,140 |
| Louisiana | $58,330 |
| Pennsylvania | $58,180 |
| Wyoming | $57,520 |
| New Mexico | $57,500 |
| North Carolina | $57,420 |
| Michigan | $56,150 |
| Colorado | $55,690 |
| Kentucky | $55,690 |
| Wisconsin | $55,390 |
| Oregon | $55,000 |
| Oklahoma | $54,390 |
| Maine | $53,790 |
| Ohio | $53,650 |
| Mississippi | $53,520 |
| Tennessee | $54,000 |
| Florida | $519,80 |
| Utah | $51,720 |
| Arkansas | $49,730 |
| South Carolina | $45,700 |
| Montana | $44,320 |
Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Your resume is often the first impression you make on a hiring manager, so it should clearly communicate your qualifications, compassion, and ability to achieve results. Social work employers want to see impact, empathy, and organization—so every section should reflect these.
Here’s how to craft a high-impact resume in 2025:
Example:
“Licensed Master Social Worker with 3+ years of experience supporting low-income families through housing, healthcare, and educational programs. Dedicated to empowering clients and improving community resources through advocacy, counseling, and evidence-based interventions.”
Pro Tip: Avoid generic objectives like “Looking for a challenging role”—instead, show the value you bring.
Example:
Example:
Example:
A successful social work interview shows that you not only have the technical skills but also the empathy, resilience, and problem-solving ability to support diverse clients. Below are common interview questions, why employers ask them, and sample answers you can adapt.
Approach your interview with preparation and confidence, and you’ll be able to show not just your qualifications, but your genuine commitment to making a difference.
Sharpen your skills in social work by taking these top online courses
Here are several online classes carefully curated by SkillSuccess to help you achieve your goals and thrive in your social work career:
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