Steps to Take Before Starting a Degree in Social Work include understanding what the profession truly demands, empathy, resilience, and a commitment to lifelong learning.
Before enrolling, it’s vital to research accredited programs, explore different areas of social work like community practice or clinical support, and gain firsthand experience through volunteering or job shadowing.
Prospective students should also prepare emotionally and financially, as social work education involves both academic rigor and field placements that test real-world skills.
Taking these steps ensures a stronger foundation for success and a clearer sense of purpose before beginning this deeply rewarding career path.
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Know What You’re Actually Signing Up For
It’s easy to romanticise social work as noble, selfless, even heroic. But the reality isn’t framed quotes on office walls or feel-good breakthrough moments.
It’s often paperwork, bureaucracy, missed calls, and long days chasing solutions that don't always show up on time.
So before committing to a degree, it helps to stop and understand what social work really looks like in day-to-day life, and what kind of roles the field includes.
Social work spans more than therapy offices and child welfare. It shows up in schools, hospitals, prisons, shelters, and courtrooms.
It includes policy work, trauma support, elder care, crisis response, addiction counseling, and community organizing. Some social workers spend their time lobbying.
Others sit in living rooms trying to find safe housing for a single parent.
The work changes shape depending on your focus and your capacity.
This matters now more than ever. In a post-pandemic world, where mental health concerns are rising, eviction rates are spiking, and public trust in institutions is shaky at best, the demand for skilled, emotionally resilient social workers is growing.
But burnout is also real. Knowing what you're walking into helps you last.
It also helps you pick a path that fits. Some students start by researching MSW online programs, which have become more visible as the demand for flexibility grows.
These programs allow students to balance study with work or caregiving, especially helpful for those returning to school mid-career.
Many are designed to meet the same accreditation standards as traditional in-person tracks, with options to specialize in areas like clinical practice, macro policy, or community mental health.
Choosing this route can help students who can’t relocate or attend on-campus classes full-time, but still want the same outcomes, licensure, practical experience, and real-world skills.
The best online programs aren’t easier. They’re just more adaptable to the realities of modern life.
Once you’ve explored these options, the next step is figuring out how you’re going to show up—not just academically, but mentally and emotionally.
Be Honest About Your Reasons
Wanting to help people is a good start, but it's not enough on its own. The kind of help social workers provide isn’t always met with gratitude.
Sometimes it’s met with suspicion, resistance, or raw grief. This isn't about discouragement. It’s about preparation.
Spend some time getting clear on your motivations. Are you drawn to advocacy? Do you want to work one-on-one in clinical settings?
Are you driven by a personal experience that shaped how you see care and justice?
Being honest about this helps keep your focus steady when the work gets messy, and it will.
The strongest social workers aren’t always the most outwardly confident. They’re the ones who know their limits, listen more than they talk, and keep showing up.
Strengthen Your Emotional Toolkit
Before entering a program, take a look at how you handle stress. Not just big, obvious stress, but the slow-burning kind, frustration, red tape, unclear outcomes.
Social work involves a steady flow of emotional labor. People are often in crisis. Systems are slow.
Resources run thin. And sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things still fall apart.
Learning how to carry that without letting it carry you out is crucial. Building emotional boundaries isn’t about detachment.
It’s about clarity. Knowing where your responsibility ends and someone else’s pain begins isn’t cold; it’s how you last in the profession.
If you’ve never worked in a high-emotion environment before, find ways to build your tolerance now.
Volunteer at a shelter. Shadow someone in the field. Join a peer support group.
Watch what seasoned professionals do—not just how they solve problems, but how they recover after difficult days.
Get Familiar with the Licensing Landscape
Social work doesn’t operate with a single national license. Each state has its own requirements, titles, and rules. Some states have three or four tiers of licensure.
Some require a clinical focus, others don’t. Some allow telehealth hours to count toward supervision, while others make you log hours face-to-face.
Understanding these requirements early helps you avoid surprises later.
It also helps you pick the right program, especially if you're considering moving across state lines or pursuing licensure in more than one region.
Most accredited MSW programs will walk you through the basics, but going in informed gives you a head start.
Pay attention to the long game too. If you want to do therapy, you’ll need clinical hours and supervision under a licensed clinician.
If you’re leaning macro, the licensure path may be different, or not required at all.
Career goals should shape your academic plan from the start, not be tacked on at the end.
Make Peace with the Paperwork
It’s not the most glamorous part, but it’s one of the most necessary. The field of social work runs on documentation.
Progress notes, intake forms, incident reports, evaluations, if it’s not written down, it didn’t happen.
Getting comfortable with clear, timely documentation is part of the job. And it starts during your education.
From your first practicum, you’ll be expected to write clearly and professionally about your clients and cases. If writing isn’t your strength, now’s the time to sharpen it.
Good documentation isn’t about sounding smart. It’s about accuracy, empathy, and legal clarity.
It’s about protecting the client and yourself. It’s how systems communicate and how progress is tracked.
And yes, it’s how agencies protect themselves in court.
Build a Support Network Before You Need It
You’re not meant to do this alone. The emotional and intellectual weight of social work makes isolation risky.
That’s why building a network before your first class even starts makes a difference.
Start connecting with others in the field. Follow social work communities online. Join a local or national association.
Ask questions, share doubts, listen more than you speak. Your peers aren’t just classmates, they’re future colleagues.
Find mentors, too. Not the ones who just tell you what you want to hear, but the ones who’ll tell you when you’re off track or missing something.
Look for people who’ve lasted in the field, who’ve been burned out and come back, who’ve stayed curious.
Resilience in social work isn’t about being tough. It’s about staying connected.
Starting a degree in social work isn’t just the beginning of an academic journey; it’s the start of a personal transformation.
Before you dive in, take the time to look inward, outward, and ahead. Learn what the work demands.
Prepare for what it might take from you. And surround yourself with people and systems that help you stay rooted.
The work ahead won’t always be clean or easy. But if it fits who you are, and who you’re becoming, it can be some of the most meaningful work you ever do.
And that kind of purpose doesn’t come with a perfect schedule or polished job title.
It comes with presence, effort, and the kind of grit that doesn’t always get applause, but always matters.
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