Employer Type: Government - Federal (United States)

The best way to describe Social Services is to teaching; meaning, if you're entering this field thinking you're going to make 'mega' money, your entering the wrong field. Social services is a gratifying career if you like helping people help themselves. It involves long hours and 'on call' weekends for a week which one has to be available for 24/7 with no extra pay. There's 70% of court work and court appearances involvement; you have to see the children and families assigned to your case load every month sometimes every week depending on their safety risks; you have to assure clients will follow through with provider recommendations which is sometimes very hard for the clients to do. It's not a 9 to 5 job like most. Even if you're not on call, clients may have a 'crisis' and you have to be on top of it especially if the child is with that parent. For me, the greatest gratification is to be able to successfully reunify the family.

It is pretty self-explanatory really. I am currently trying to break into human services with focus on social work, after years of being an "office clerk" or "data entry clerk" through various companies. One of the opportunities that has just arisen is a volunteer position focusing on literacy, specifically geared toward children whose siblings/parents have been incarcerated. The least amount of time I will have to spend on this is one hour per week (though I will most likely spend more). I would personally recommend to anyone out there trying to better themselves in their own field, or attempting to break into another one, to get involved with their community. Volunteerism can also count toward college credits.

If you have children and spouse (or live-in boy/girl-friend), I would suggest involving them in volunteering as well. No matter how busy we think we are, we can make time for family - even if its just on the weekends.