If I do not want to be social worker anymore and I have a MSW what other careers can I switch too?

Question

My wife doesn't want to be a Social Worker anymore and she has $75,000 in school dept which includes a masters degree of social work. She already pays $500 a month in student loans. What careers can she switch too without costing another small fortune to learn? For example since she has a masters degree can she transfer her credits to another career choice so she doesn't have to start from scratch. Can social workers become some super ( fill in the blank )? Or is the field so narrow that she is what she is and won't be able to switch careers without starting over?

If i haven't stated it clear enough, how bout this: my wife is looking for another job that will pay a lot of money. She has a master degree and 6 years of experience working with people of all types. She is bilingual certified. That job is?

Answer 1

She could not be a School Counselor without the training for a School Counselor certification.  But since she is bi-lingual she should be able to get a job in a hospital career track.  If she wishes to get into administration, a hospital may pay for any additional training she needs....maybe.  She probably will not start out making what she is making now.  We all reach a point when we do not want to do what we are doing but may be very good at what we do.  Sometimes that is enough.  Some of us start writing or get into some other things on a volunteer basis to keep our interests going.  You really should like what you are doing when in a helping profession.  

A job that pays $75,000 a year is not something to walk away from.   Her credits probably cannot transfer to another degree without her having to take more credits.  The business of education is just that....a business.  Colleges want to make money, too.

Answer 2

Something related to marketing comes to mind.

Who are those people that intepret data from polls?

They're probably business majors but I'm sure that there's something in the big wide spectrum  that is marketing where her skills could prove useful.

Warning:  If she didn't like social work then she should probably stay as far away as possible from sales.

Answer 3

Why not a college or high school vocational counselor?  Another one would be Rehabilitation Counselor.

Answer 4

If you were more specific about the type of social work she has done it might be easier to answer this question.  Some people have an overly narrow view of social work.  It may be that she can shift her focus in social work rather than leave the profession.

So for example these are all related to social work

1) Administration (Executive Director, Program Director)

2) Policy Analysis

3) Research

4) Community Organizing

5) Grant Writing

6) Consultant

7) Trainer (while someone mentioned "instructor" - this may be a possibility especially if there is a BSW or MSW program near by) - if she can teach any of the above topics it will be good and/or if she can teach related to the practice she did.

8) Switching population and/or settings are also sometimes useful

Outside of Social work

Real Estate -

Human Resources

Corporate Sales

Event Planning

DA

Answer 5

Uh, instantly land a job making the big bucks?

I dunno about that.

To change careers is to start at least somewhat from scratch, or at least not near the top.

Advocacy is one way to go.

Reasearch would be another.

Another is to be a translator -- in some place where there aren't enough speakers of the other language to deal with the people they serve.

What she could do is sign up with Monster and other job sites, and do some searches. Look at the job requirements, and do more searches.

It might be that she'll need to do something between starting "super" and starting from scratch -- in fact, that's most likely.

She might need SOME more education (though not as though she just left high school), or start somewhere not at the top of a brand new field, but in the middle.

If she has a Master's, then she has a Bachelor's. Getting another Master's won't be from scratch in that sense. She could look into things that are related and see if any of her courses could be applied to it.

Answer 6

Sometimes I see counselors (you know, talk therapy) with MSW after their names.  What about being a school counselor at any level, elementary through high school?  Every school in our district has one and they seem to deal with everything from interpersonal issues among the kids to family problems.  People are well paid in our school district (southwestern PA)

Answer 7

The health care industry has many opportunities that would welcome someone with your wife's occupational experience and education.  But since this is a question provided by you not the principle, I wonder if real meat of your question is how to encourage your wife to seek a more intellectually stimulating position without threatening the bottom line of your bank account.  Ya, know, I'm in the process of relocating to a home in a village in southern IL. half the size of the one I now live in.  I have found that possessions are very burdensome, and one important revelation I have perceived during this down sizing is how superficial objects are.  So, your wife has to pay 6,000.00 a year to satisfy her student loans.  So, what's her income bottom line.  If she is a significant contributor to the way you display your money, they you are ahead of a lot of our population.

Answer 8

If I were in her shoes I would try to get an instructor's position at a community college. After working there for a year or two I would then apply for an instructor's position at a university. College instructors make decent money and have a lot of time off. During her off time she can work doing something else like teaching online college courses. Almost every college and university now offer online courses. She could even teach the online courses during the regular school year when she is not off. Some colleges and universities use only "their" faculty to teach online courses, but most tend to contract the work out to any experienced instructor with a master's degree or higher, regardless of whether or not they are faculty at "their" school.

If she has any trouble finding an instructor's position initally because of her lack of teaching experience, then she might try applying for an adjunct instructor position. Adjunct is what the higher education system calls its part-time, temporary instructors. These adjunct instructors make $35-$40 an hour at the community college level in North Texas where I am from. If she has any teaching/instructing/training experience from her current job, then she should be sure to include that on her resume and cover letter when she begins looking for an instructor's position.

I believe that she has a very good chance to land a position with her social work experience and her master's degree level education. Tell her not to let the face that she has no teaching experience bother her. In fact, many colleges and universities now have changed their philosophy on hiring instructors for the college classroom. Now, in many cases, they would rather hire an instructor with practical knowledge and experience in a particular field, as in the case of your wife, than to hire an individual with teaching experience and no practical experience.

Finally, you guys may want to go to www.boystown.org and look over the jobs available at this organization. They are an excellent organization which has been caring for troubled youth for almost a  century. They pay very well and the federal government will forgive student loan debts for those who work with youth at an organization like Boys Town. Woking here you would kill two birds with one stone. Your wife would have an excellent job and she would be able to qualify for student loan forgiveness. Boys Town has locations all over the country. David