Community

Social work jobs are tough and intense at the best of times, leaving hardly any room for consideration of the past, and thereby getting more perspective on the present. However, Brian Dimmock, a principle lecturer in social work at the university of Gloucester, has finished a project to change that. Recently the Guardian reported on his project to compile more than 50 face-to-face interviews with different people in all types of social worker jobs. The interviewees range from very young workers at the beginning of their careers to older people, who have been in social services jobs for over 40 years; from students in their first jobs, to managers.

The interviews also involve a range of workers from various regions of the country. Dimmock’s research took more than four years, and the interviews are unedited, ranging from 20 to 50 minutes long. The main purposes for carrying out this project seem to be to gauge the mood, or level of job satisfaction, amongst social workers, and to see how they think about their own profession. Also, the aim was to test whether progress is being made in social work according to the workers, and to see what has changed in 40 years of social work.

One of the conclusions is that people find that the rise of the management culture can sometimes be frustrating, since it is perceived to result in a reduction in face-to-face time with the people they are supposed to be able to help. This is accompanied with frustration at a greater level of bureaucracy: the amount of risk assessments, incident forms and other types of paperwork has augmented ever more over the past 40 years. However, there were positives to come from the interviews.

The most noteworthy of the findings, according to Dimmock, has been that people in social worker jobs have continued to be so positive about their professions, despite the many obstacles that they face. The profession does seem to suffer from a perception that, to begin with, one starts off idealistic, and ends up becoming ‘world weary’ as a result of the frustration of not being able to make as much of a change for good as one had hoped. However, this does not seem to be the case, judging by the people in social work jobs interviewed in Dimmock’s videos. Social services jobs still seem to attract people who are motivated to make a tangible difference to people’s lives, and often as a result of their own life experiences.

Please visit http://www.socialworkandcarejobs.com/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.socialworkandcarejobs.com/

4cfe2e690d6e0

I had been at the same job for about ten years when I realised that it was time to leave. A friend told me that some fairly good social work jobs were available through sanctuary personnel, and I remembered that this had come up on the internet when I had googled social services jobs.  I sent them my CV and asked if they had any jobs on their books which might suit me, and was very chuffed when they emailed me the next day to say that they had several vacancies on their books which they thought I would be ideal for.

I came into the agency the week after to chat to one of their staff about how they might be able to help me. The meeting took the form of a sort of casual interview, but it was in fact not as intimidating as I expected, as it was really a matter of getting to know me without putting me under any pressure.  I really appreciated this approach as, after all, social work jobs are not so much about how you act in a high pressure formal situation, but about how well you can empathise and connect with others.

After this initial chat, I wasn’t necessarily expecting to hear anything, so I was pleasantly surprised when the lady from the agency called me the next week to say that one of the employers to whom they had sent me CV wanted to contact me.  She gave me some insider information about the company and what kind of thing they would be looking for, so I felt really well prepared before my meeting.  When I went in for the interview it was obvious to me that it wasn’t really the sort of thing I was looking for, but I felt that it was good interview practice anyway. I spoke to the agency afterwards and they said that another placement had come in which might be more appropriate for me, so I fixed up another interview for the following Friday.

I was so impressed by the number of social worker jobs the agency seemed to have on their books, so I was confident that something would come in soon that suited me. Sure enough, the next interview I went to went really well and I was offered the job. I would definitely recommend the company to anyone looking for social services jobs or social work jobs.

Please visit http://www.sanctuarypersonnel.com/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.sanctuarypersonnel.com/

4c863b6fe5fe4