HELP! Does this constitute as relevant experience?

[HaleyWantstobeaTherapist]

Hey everyone!

I'm just recently becoming very interested in an MSW degree after graduation. I'm a Psychology student at a major state university, and I just recently picked up a social work minor. I'm interested in becoming a LCSW in a large city up north.

One thing I am extremely confused about is what constitutes as relevant experience. I work at a preschool as an assistant teacher, and I will continue to work there for the for the time until i graduate (I'm currently a junior, will be applying next fall for Fall 2017). If working at a preschool is considered relevant, I will have tons of experience (I've already got 400+ hours from this semester alone)

However, if it is not considered relevant, I'm worried about the experience I have outside of that. I work in an eating disorders research clinic, and at the end of this year that will be two semester worth of experience there. I also am in an organization within the university that works alongside the University Counseling Center (we work as peer educators, doing presentations and individual instructional sessions on topics like healthy relationships, stress management, time management, etc.) On top of this, I plan on picking up an internship this summer at a multidisciplinary center where I would be working with school age children (preschool all the way through high school age) in direct mental health services as a counselor. It would last the summer and fall semesters.

Is this, even without my job at the preschool, enough? Does working at a preschool count as relevant?

[jillchristine]

Hi Haley, Hopefully I can help you out a little bit on this. Any experience you can connect with social work would be acceptable. Just going on what you described I would start with the experiences at the ED clinic and counseling center since those are more applicable. However if you can relate your experience with children in what you want to do in the future (for example I am going towards pediatric clinical social work, so I use my experience with kids to relate to the developmental aspects of childhood and pathological versus non-pathological development) then I would definitely include it. Related experience doesn't always have to be work or paid experience. I would even suggest picking up more volunteer opportunities to show that you're dedicated to this work, even if they're one time things like homeless outreach, food drives, etc. Also I wouldn't necessarily focus on the amount of time you've been there, but rather elaborate on the things that you did at the positions. I'm convinced my volunteer history is why I was accepted so you're off to the right start! Best of luck! 

[HaleyWantstobeaTherapist]

On 12/8/2015 at 8:16 PM, jillchristine said:

Hi Haley, Hopefully I can help you out a little bit on this. Any experience you can connect with social work would be acceptable. Just going on what you described I would start with the experiences at the ED clinic and counseling center since those are more applicable. However if you can relate your experience with children in what you want to do in the future (for example I am going towards pediatric clinical social work, so I use my experience with kids to relate to the developmental aspects of childhood and pathological versus non-pathological development) then I would definitely include it. Related experience doesn't always have to be work or paid experience. I would even suggest picking up more volunteer opportunities to show that you're dedicated to this work, even if they're one time things like homeless outreach, food drives, etc. Also I wouldn't necessarily focus on the amount of time you've been there, but rather elaborate on the things that you did at the positions. I'm convinced my volunteer history is why I was accepted so you're off to the right start! Best of luck! 

Thank you so much! I think I will start volunteering at a crisis intervention center soon. Hopefully thatll give me some good stuff to work with!

[tamburger]

Social work consists of working with different level systems (i.e. individual, schools/communities, institutions). I used teaching experience on my resume and chalked it up as mezzo level exposure. A girl in my current program got a placement in a child development center, so I would say your experience is very much related! Don't be afraid to tack on any experience as social work experience if you feel like it is. A lot of things can qualify as SW related. Your program likely wants to see if you can identify that yourself. Good luck!