Essay Interview with a Social Worker

I have often exaggerated the workplace and lifestyle of a social worker. After meeting with a fellow social worker, I am now able to understand their busy lifestyle. A social worker has to consider the struggles clients have experienced and hear their narratives. At the same time, these social workers need to keep their life in order in a professional and healthy way. A social worker I had the chance to meet, has endured four years of training at Thompson Rivers University: he received a bachelor degree off social work with a child welfare specialization, and two practicums, as well as regular training introduced by the government; that broadened his understanding on domestic violence, child welfare, and interview training. He stated six particular duties: provide child safety, child welfare, family care, community development, assisting individuals and being a go-to person to fellow clients (personal communication, January 27, 2016).

For Mrs. Hewes the Introduction to Social Work class we were asked to interview a licensed Social Worker and write an experience paper about the interview. Finding a social worker to interview wasn’t very hard for me because many of my mother’s friends got their masters in social work, but not many of them actually got their license except for one of them. The licensed social worker that I interviewed goes by the name of Tanya Hill. Tanya got her Masters of Social Work at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida in 2000, as well as her license and she now resides in Panama City, Florida. Tanya is someone that I have known since I was a little girl and someone that I definitely aspire to be like once I graduate. My interview with Tanya was over the phone since I did not have time to drive back to Florida to do a face to face one, but while we were on the phone every answer she gave me to the questions I asked were quite interesting.

As part of our preparation for placement, we were required to make a role play on a given scenario in pairs. Each of us had to play the role of the social work student and the service user. We chose to use Miss Allen’s scenario, because we both had experience of working the adults. In preparation for this task, we met twice to clarify our roles and discussed the scenario as we understood it. We also discussed how we were going to assess Miss Allen, and what help we would offer her. The preparation was an important part of our task because it challenged us to think of the interview within its widest context, taking into account the particular needs of Miss Allen, agency policy and procedure and ourselves as student social

On September 21, 2015, I met with Ms. Katie, a student in the MSW program at NCSU, to conduct an interview. We met at Starbucks in Cary, in the crossroads shopping center. Ms. Katie’s responses helped me learn and think about social workers in the child welfare social field. As a prospective social worker, my questions were formed based thoughts that I was concerned about my responsibilities in the social work field..

For my interview, I interviewed my family friend Sandi Mahoney that has her masters in social work. She attended Umass Amherst for her bachelor 's degree and then she attended Framingham State for her masters. Currently, Mahoney works as a therapist at her own private practice. My first impression of the agency was it was a small building. I did not feel overwhelmed going into the building because how small it was and I knew exactly where to go. There was a secretary that was in the waiting room and she was very friendly to me. The waiting room was also very welcoming. There were pictures of happy families all over the waiting room. There was also a play area for children. If I was a client here, I would feel very comfortable talking and telling Sandi Mahoney what was on my mind.

For this assignment, I decided to interview my aunt because she has been a social worker for about thirty years, and has a lot of experience. She attended Dominican college in Orangeburg, New York where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She then went to graduate school at Montclair State in New Jersey where she received her master’s in psychology. After this, she decided to go back to school for her MSW, which she received from SUNY Albany. Since she graduated, the only profession she has worked in is social work, and she is now a licensed clinical social worker. She loves what she does and is glad that she made the decision to become a social worker.

The most important core value for this case to me is cultural competence. The National Association of Social Worker’s (NASW) describes the importance as cultural competence for a Social Worker to develop “a knowledge base of their clients’ cultures and be able to demonstrate competence in the provision of services that are sensitive to clients’ cultures and to differences among people and cultural groups” (2008). This really seems to be key to this case because the school seems to have Heterosexist values, Heterosexism is having prejudices against those that do not fill the heterosexual norm(Burn, Kadlec, & Rexer, 2005). These values tend to have effect on not only the individuals that may be homosexual, but their greater family system. Often heterosexism can increase psychosocial stress for both the family and the individual. This is extremely common and can even be done through anti-homosexual language such as the things Miranda has over heard.

Social work is a career that finds and chooses you, rather than you selecting it. Social work has always been an immense portion of my life even when I had no recollection of what social work entailed. My life revolved around so many situations that had a social worker stepped in, my life would be totally different than it is today. Many individuals and agencies lack the compassion and empathy for oppressed people. Having been in many circumstances, has given me the experience and background that influenced me to go into social work, as well as the understanding of my role and responsibilities that I will assume as a professional social worker, and my reasons for selecting the program at ASU School of Social Work and thoughts on how the Mission Statement addresses my career goals.

During the mock social work interview process I have discovered a lot of interesting facts about the process, myself, and the differences between how the interviewer and the interviewee experience the interview. The opportunity was unexpectedly very informative and has shown me how I want to grow as an interviewer for my clients as well as myself.

On Wednesday, September 20, 2017, at approximately 3:15pm, I interviewed Julia Dressler, a peer in my Social Work Interviewing class. The purpose of the interview was to become comfortable being recorded, increase my experience using the interviewing skills learned in class, and to be able to analyze my strengths and weaknesses, leading to a greater learning opportunity. Julia and I met in study room 308 in the George R. White Library at Concordia University in Portland. The study room was a quiet place and we had no interruptions.

Social workers provide professional support and wide variety of services to people who have social difficulties, and are trained to address human needs. They can work in different settings and can specialize in working with people, groups and communities, at all stages of life, from young children to older adults. The role of a social worker varies depending on what setting they are working in, like a hospital or a school.

This week I am coming to some great understanding of the agency; it has been 8 weeks, and now I can draw some conclusions. First, I have a good understanding of people and their behaviors. That is why for the last three field placements, supervisors have expressed that I have a good insight into situations and people. That sounds very good, but what do you

When starting this project, I was not sure who I wanted to interview, which field of social work, I wanted to know more first-hand information about. I thought about interviewing a school social worker, or a non-profit management social worker. I eventually decided that I would like to learn about non-profit management because I have not had much knowledge on that concertation.

Captain Rob Geis agreed to be interviewed and share his experiences with the next generation of Social Workers. Native to Ohio, he graduated High School in 1979, he continued his education at Ohio State University from 1982-1986, completing his Masters in Social Work. For the past 24 years, he has served as a Social Worker in the United States Army. In his current position he is responsible for the Department of Social Work Services. Previous positions have included: two assignments as a Division Social Worker, Medical Inpatient Social Worker, Chief of Social Work, Division Chief of Mental Health, Clinical Director of Army Substance Abuse Program, Combat Operation Stress Control Commander, and General Staff

In completing this essay an opportunity was given to visit a social service agency to interview a social worker. The interview will focus on the educational background of the social worker, job duties, training, funding, organization structure, target population, recommended opportunities for growth, and the correlation between social work and course work.