Heif1

@Jenste, I'd like to work as a child and youth mental health worker. Any experience related to mental health and child and youth work would be ideal.

A question for those who are currently working on gaining work experience: What types of employment opportunities would be suitable for anyone without a BSW or extensive work experience? I'm starting to lose hope as most agencies require a ton of experience in specific positions such as child welfare or addicitons worker. Would volunteering be my best bet? I have started searching for volunteer work instead of paid work, but I'm wondering if top schools prefer paid work experience and downgrade volunteer hours!

Wow nice too see so many of us have been wait-listed at U of T. It was definitely a lot less painful to read a wait-list letter than a rejection letter! But I haven't heard anything from Lakehead, I need some words of encouragement lol I'm assuming it's a rejection at this point. Congrats to those of you who will be starting your MSW journey this year and good luck to everyone else who's still waiting

Don't be too hard on yourself, you've been working hard, don't ever forget that! Most of us are on the same boat, not because we've been slacking but because this field is very competitive. It's not easy to get social work experience when you don't have any social experience :/ Anyways, I'm glad the application process for U of T is over, I tried my very best I'm taking a short break before I start stressing out about my other statements Happy holidays everyone!

I have an SSW diploma and an honors degree in psychology, I don't see why my diploma would be looked down upon when I already graduated from University!! Though it's at the college level and it won't necessarily increase your chances of being accepted to the masters , they won't reject you for having a diploma that's relevant to social work!!! Does anyone else think it would be considered useless?

^ I meant to say work experiences, not personal. b39, I'm not ready to submit them either. I need my professor and my school's career counselors to critique them first. I hope they'll be able to email me back on time

Thanks, I'm going to make some changes. I didn't have enough room to explain how I used those traits in my volunteer roles for that questions because I have a lot of personal experiences as well! Did anyone go 40-50 words over the word limit? I had trouble keeping it under 500 words.

Nutella14- I also briefly talked about some of the social work-related courses I completed that motivated me to pursue this career. Don't be afraid to discuss your personal experiences without going into too much detail. I have a question as well. The first part of the 2nd question is asking you to discuss your "attributes". I started by describing my values, skills and personality traits relevant to social work (e.g. empathy, compassion, etc). Do you think it's necessary to mention these things on a SOP considering that I won't be able to prove them on paper? I don't want to tell them what I can do, I want to be able to show it. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks

I just private messaged you! Guys, most universities have career centres that help out with grad school resumes and statements as well (if you graduated within the last year). I went to western and they told me they'll critique it for me.

Hi Jennbe, May I ask, how did you get into child welfare and addictions services? The places I called were looking for a few years of experience working with those specific clients.

Hi everyone! I'm so glad I found this board! I've been reading all of your posts ever since I got rejected from York's 2 year MSW last year. I am reapplying to a few schools this year but I'm also applyig to the BSW program at orillia/thunderbay this time in case I don't get into the 2 year program again (thanks to smpalesh for suggesting it on this board ) even though they have limited space as well. My goal for this year was to find paid employment in the social service field because I thought since I already have a social service worker diploma, an honours psychology degree as well as years of volunteer and internship experiences, it shouldn't be impossible for me to find work in the field. This way my resume might stand out more for grad school. Unfortunately, just like grad schools, every where I was trying to apply to required 3-5 years of paid work experience in those specific positions and I was only applying for entry-level !! So I do agree with one of the posters here who mentioned the challenges of finding work in this field when you don't have much experience or connections, even if you have a BSW. On a positive note, I did get 3 phone calls for direct care worker positions recently so there is still some hope that my resume isn't too bad. I'm also going to start looking for volunteer work again to boost up my resume because I've kinda lost hope in finding paid work. I give props to those of you who continued volunteering for several years to boost up your resume, I shouldn't have taken a break from volunteering. The disappointing part was when I asked the HR managers "how would a recent graduate go about finding experience in ____(specific position)" they responded with "that's something you would be discussing with a career counsellor." In fact, I HAD discussed that with a couple of career counselors as soon as job hunting became too stressful. They told me that you need connections to get into the field of social work because it's a challenging field to get into if you just search online. P.S. Someone had asked how much social workers make after years of experience. You can make up to 100K a year if you work for 10 years. It's a great field if you're really passionate but it's definitely a challenging field to get into.