How To Pass a Social Worker Job Interview
There is a current demand for social workers, but even with this need for more social workers, competition for social worker positions are high.
Employers are looking for a particular criteria when it comes to recruiting social workers.
In the job interveiw be prepared to evidence common social worker duties including; conducting interviews with families, following regulations, complying with data protection laws and child protection regulations.
Not only do social worker employers want to hear how you meet the job criteria they also look at an applicant’s persona; can they handle stress, will they build rapport which acting professionally and can they make hard decisions.
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Social Worker Job Interview Assessments
There is now a number of assessments, as well as the traditional interview question and answer sessions, for social worker recruitment.
Your first task, if it is not explained in interview offer email, is to find out what assessments you will be asked to complete.
Often you will be given a number of cases that you have to prioritise before explaining your reasons behind your decision.
Some social worker interviews will invite clients to be on the interview panel, this is to check your communication and interaction with the client group.
Social work is a stressful job due to the demands put on you. To check how you manage stress you maybe given a group exercise to solve a problem in a particular time frame.
The idea behind this interview task is not to see if your solve the problem or not, rather they are looking at your approach to problem solving.
Key skills you need to discuss during the interview
As an experienced (or recently qualified) social worker you will have a wide variety of skills and experiences.
It can be challenging deciding which skills and experiences to highlight as part of your interview answers.
We have met with a wide range of social worker recruitment managers and asked what they deem most important.
They said the key social worker skills you must discuss are;
- assessment skills
- assessing risk
- demonstrating your values and work ethic
- giving real-life examples
- explaining the theory behind your answers
- managing stress
- prioritizing
- your under standing of serious case studies
- explaining how what you do has a positive impact
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10 Common asked social worker interview questions
- give me overview of your social work experience to date
- what social worker qualifications d o you have
- how do you prioritise your caseload
- discuss a real child protection case you were involved in and the outcome to the case
- how do you manage your time between recording cases on the database and working with your caseload
- what legislation are you familiar with and how does it affect your role
- how to you continue to develop your skills
- how would you handle a situation where a client you were working with told you that they fancied you
- what are the first things you check for when you start to work with a new family
- do you have any questions for me
