Are you right for the job?
Thinking of a career as a social worker? Check out this list of skills and learn how to develop them.
Ability to Interact with Others
A social worker must be able to go to unfamiliar places and quickly earn the trust of those they are working with. This is why a strong ability to meet and work with new people is required.You have what you need to succeed if:
- You know how to make friends easily.
- You adapt quickly to people from different cultures, backgrounds and ages.
- You can negotiate with friends to solve problems.
To develop these skills, you can:
- Register in an extra-curricular activity where you don’t know anyone else.
- Become a youth mediator to help other kids in your school resolve their differences.
- Get in the habit of introducing yourself first to people you don’t know and start conversations with them.
Analytical Skills
As you have already seen, a social worker creates programs to help people get out of difficult situations. A social worker must have excellent analytical skills to be able to consider all possible solutions to problems and then come up with programs that will work.You have what you need to succeed if:
- You often guess the ending to a suspense movie or crime novel.
- You find it easy to understand new material at school.
- You are curious and like to work on complex problems, such as Sudoku.
To develop these skills, you can:
- Read interesting books and tell your friends about them in your own words.
- Watch informative TV shows and documentaries on a variety of subjects, such as politics, technology or sciences.
- Play games that require logic and strategy, such as chess, checkers or Risk.
Listening skills
Social workers must be excellent communicators and listeners. They must be able to pay close attention to what their clients are saying and be able to explain potential solutions in a simple and clear manner.You have what you need to succeed if:
- You attentively listen to your friend’s private stories (and don’t share them with others).
- You listen to, but never interrupt, conversations between friends.
- You can easily remember the details of a story someone has told you.
To develop these skills, you can:
- Learn how to become an active listener (use techniques that help you remember what people tell you).
- Become a member of a support group to show that you can handle confidential information.
- Make a habit of mentally repeating key words when studying for exams.
Neutrality
Social workers need to be able to look at the facts without taking sides. So, for example, even though a social worker might be personally convinced that mothers make better parents than fathers, she cannot let this belief affect the way she determines whether a woman’s children are being mistreated by their father in a certain case.You have what you need to succeed if:
- You are fair-minded during an argument between two people, even if your best friend is involved.
- You help people resolve conflicts without being controlled by your emotions.
- You can find solutions to issues involving your parents and your teachers.
To develop these skills, you can:
- Put yourself in the shoes of someone who does not share your opinions.
- Play the role of a mediator during a heated discussion between your friends and reconcile their points of view.
- Before giving your opinion on a topic that you don’t know much about, learn more about it so you can weigh the pros and cons.
