Preparing to Interview for a Social Work Position

Written by Lizzie Learn On 23rd Feb 2022

A career in social work or community care can be immensely rewarding, but it requires a specific set of personal qualities and skills, along with formal qualifications in some cases.

In this article, you will learn how to prepare for a social work interview. Social workers need to be skilled in juggling a large caseload and know how to best allocate their time. This entails making decisions whilst under a considerable amount of pressure. At an interview, you may be asked to describe your personal stress reduction strategies and to give an example of a time you had to prioritise several cases.

Previous Experience of a Social Work Position

If you have already held a social work position, you should draw on your previous experience in the role. If not, think about the placements you undertook as part of your degree. If appropriate, you could tell the interviewer about a time a mentor showed you how to manage a high caseload and what you learned from their working style. Or think about other instances, either in your work or personal life, where you have been under stress and how you dealt with it.

Go into the interview with at least two examples that prove you can work well under pressure.

It is imperative that social workers have an excellent understanding of legislation relevant to specific cases and that they are willing and able to keep accurate records. Be prepared to tell the interviewer how and why you need to record visits, discussions and other pieces of information pertinent to a case. Emphasise that you are keenly aware of timely report writing and that you are always eager to keep up to date with changes to legislation in your area of interest.

A social work interview will provide an opportunity to showcase your knowledge of how theory and practice should be combined. Before your interview, make a list of the key models and theories that have been relevant to your career in social work to date. Try and refer to these throughout the interview.

For example, if you are asked what you learnt during your last job in a role that entailed working with families, you might mention that it helped you to have an enhanced appreciation of people as individuals and unique beings, rather than cases to be examined. You could then provide specific examples of a real-life case.

Key Skills

Active listening, critical thinking, time management and tolerance are key skills that all social workers need to demonstrate in an interview. You may well be asked to tell the interviewer about the ways in which you seek to further your competence and knowledge. The most effective way to answer this kind of question is to talk about two or three specific courses, workshops or books that have helped improve your performance as a social worker over the past year.

Highlight the skills that are most useful for social work so that the interviewer can see what you can bring to the role that will enhance the service offered to clients. Be ready to give at least one example of how you have applied your new knowledge to a professional problem.

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Career Development

You should consider how you would like your career to develop over the next three, five and 10 years. This means thinking about the client group you want to work with, the type of setting in which you wish to work and whether you are looking to work your way up the career ladder and take on a management position.

Show the interviewer that you aren't just looking to secure the first social work job you can find, but that you have a genuine desire to make a difference to individuals within a specific area.

Offer solutions to potential challenges. Highlight ways in which you have resolved issues in the past so that the interviewer can see your troubleshooting capabilities, as everyone has, at some point, had to deal with ad-hoc requests in their job.

Ask Questions

Towards the end of the interview, you will be given the opportunity to ask the interviewer a few questions. You should always have at least a couple of questions prepared in advance, even if you know the answer. Asking questions suggests a genuine interest in the role.

The interview is a chance to learn more about the team you will be joining if you get the job and to ask what the working environment is like. This will give you valuable insight into whether the team is stable or if it is likely to be a high-stress environment.

Remember, a job interview is not simply just a way for an employer to find out whether you are right for the job, it is also a chance for you to find out if you want the job.

In Conclusion

Your objective when being interviewed for a role in social work is to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of relevant legislation, a sound approach to managing stress and a commitment to the role, to best serve your clients. A caring personality and a genuine desire to help vulnerable people is essential, however, thorough preparation is required if you truly want to convince the interviewer to give you a job!

You can find more information about working in social care on the NHS website.

To learn which online health and social care courses are available through New Skills Academy, click here.