The Best Jobs in Social Work

If you’ve trained as a social worker, you owe it to yourself to look for great social work jobs. As a career, it can be grueling, with hard work and low resources to help all the people you need to, but finding the right job with the right service can make it the most rewarding job you ever do, where you get to make a real, positive difference to vulnerable people.

Finding the best jobs in social work isn’t simply a matter of Googling ‘great social work jobs’ and applying for them. They will differ from person to person: everyone goes into social work with a different interest and motivation, and the ideal job for one person won’t be an ideal job for another.

So, the first step towards finding your ideal job is knowing what you want to do. If you don’t feel you have a clear idea about this, look back on work placements you did while you were studying: what particularly stood out to you as a rewarding time? If nothing else, this should give you some pointers about whether you like working as part of a big institution, like a hospital or a smaller one where you have less support but more independence.

If you’re coming straight out of your training, it makes sense to talk to the people who have taught you and supervised during work experience for guidance on where to look for your first job. It’s not realistic to hope to go into your ideal job immediately but your first placements will give you both the experience you need and the chance to build a reputation for being reliable and hardworking that will allow you to pick and choose the later steps in your career.

When you have a clear idea of your goals, as described above, you should speak to a specialist recruiting firm. Ordinary recruiters aren’t experienced with NHS and social work placements and won’t be able to match you with the vacancies you really want.

Finding someone who does specialise in getting trained medical and social carers jobs will be a noticeable step up for you. Make sure you are clear about what you want, and the experience that means you can do it. Being confident in yourself and what you want and communicating that clearly is the key to getting the best jobs in social work: the jobs you want to do.