Having a great school social worker resume will certainly improve your chances at getting the job over other applicants.
To write a good resume for the school social worker position is not really difficult, all you need to do is to make sure your skills, competence, and experience are projected very well so the employer can pick your resume out of the many that they usually receive.
This post is to guide you through the steps of making a great resume that can actually get employers’ attention to call you for a chat at an interview.
It will show you how to create the different parts of the resume, such as the objective statement, competence, experience, and the educational qualification sections, and to put all of them together in making a highly compelling document that has a higher degree of getting employers to read it and accept your application for the job.
What Resume Format is the Best?
Well, the answer is that there isn’t one. However, you can use any format, and if you ensure to project your competence, skills, and experience, which the employer is interested in to hire a social worker for a school, then you can be sure that your resume will likely be picked for further discussion with you.
Now, let’s begin to see how to make the different parts of the resume, taking a resume with four sections, namely the objective, core competence, experience, and professional qualification as our case study.
The School Social Worker Resume Objective Section
The objective section of a school social worker resume has the introductory statement of your resume and provides your chance at a good first impression.
To write this section, clearly state the reason why you want to be a school social worker in their school.
Communicate your passion for the job and your capacity to deliver if given a chance. Don’t delay this to other sections; it may end up not being read.
A great objective statement almost always guarantees that the whole resume would be read.
The objective section is your first contact with the employer; therefore, you have to maximize it by quickly communicating your ability to meet their major need for a social worker in their school.
Doing this conveys an impression that you know what’s important to them and it will stand you out as an applicant.
Know that every employer is searching for someone that can add value to their organization; make sure your objective for wanting the job of a social worker communicates the value you will be bring to the school.
However, to make the most out of this section, you must have an idea of the specific major needs of the prospective employer for a school social worker.
And you don’t need to be an inspector to find this out. By simply looking at the content of employers’ advertisement for the job position, you will most likely see the job requirements and description of their ideal school social worker.
It is almost a norm now for employers to specify this in their advertisement for a vacant position.
Take the case of schools for instance; they seek to hire social workers who are skilled in research, grounded in counseling techniques, interviewing techniques, and conflict resolution.
Also valuable to school employers is for the social worker to have great communication skills and in-depth knowledge of legal procedures required in the job.
So, if you possess these qualities, then flaunt them cleverly in your objective statement!
School Social Worker Objective Examples for Resume
Here are some objective statement examples to further drive home the point we have made above, and also to serve as a guide in writing your own objective for the post of school social worker.
- Seeking the position of school social worker in XYZ School where my exceptional skills in social research, proficiency with counseling techniques, interviewing techniques, and conflict resolution techniques with high regards to the appropriate legal procedures as remarked by my past employers will be employed.
- Seeking the job of school social worker in a growing learning institution where my many years of experience in counseling students; working in several schools, will be needed in providing a more productive life for students.
Please take note that the second example above is suitable for resumes that target the general education industry, unlike the first that specifically targets a known institution of learning where such vacancy exists.
The next section, core competence section, satisfies the employer’s desire to know if you have the right skills, qualities, and competence to excel as a social worker in a school:
Core Competence Section
This is where you should highlight the key talents, knowledge, abilities and experience that make you an exceptional school social worker to hire.
Your core competencies in many ways show the prospective employer that you possess the prerequisite abilities needed to prosper in the job.
So, make sure you do a good job in highlighting exceptional social research skill, proficiency with counseling techniques, interviewing techniques, and conflict resolution techniques with high regards to the appropriate legal procedures that you possess.
Also add other unique competencies like intuition, communication skills, proficiency with computers, and sound judgment that you have acquired.
You need to project your competence in this section in such a way that prospecting employers will see the huge benefits you will be bringing to their school if they should hire you.
And because they wouldn’t want to miss those benefits, they will likely call you up for further discussion on your working for them.
The next part of the resume to complete is where you need to let the employer know you have enough experience working as a school social worker or in a related position to it:
Job Experience Section
The work experience section, which some refer to as professional experience or work history, is the place to show employers that you can excel on the job, and that they should trust you with it since you have done it before.
Employers believe experience breeds mastery, so they almost always favor an experienced hand over fresh talent.
Here is where to state the duties and responsibilities of the job that you have actually carried out in the past or are currently doing in another school.
This will improve your chances of getting the job because you have shown the employer that you have been successful doing the job in other schools, and so they should be rest assured that you will be successful too with them.
To achieve the desired effect for this section, it is advisable to use a copy of the school social worker job description when writing it provided that the duties and responsibilities stated in it are true reflection of your experience.
Also, you need to ensure that the verbs used in describing your current work activities are in present tense, while job functions done in the past are described in past tense. Don’t overlook this.
Finally, the last part of the resume is where to show your qualification to the employer:
Professional Qualification
Here, you should emphasize your academic qualifications and relevant training programs that you have completed, that qualify you to work as a school social worker, and that put you at a better position to be a top performer on the job.
School Social Worker Resume Example/Sample/Template
Using all that have been discussed above on writing the various sections of the school social worker resume, here is a sample resume for the position.
You are free to use it as a template when writing a resume for the new social worker job in a school that you are gunning for – best of luck!.
…………………
Maxwell Golden
1135 Moore Street. Stonetown, New Jersey. Home: (111) 555-9999, cell: (222)999-9999. maxwellgolden@this-is-a-school-social-worker-resume-sample.com
OBJECTIVE: Seeking to be a school social worker in XYZ School where my exceptional skills in social research, proficiency with counseling techniques, interviewing techniques, and conflict resolution techniques with high regards to the appropriate legal procedures as remarked by my past employers will be employed.
CORE COMPETENCIES
- Exceptional research skill
- Good communication skill
- Proficient in counseling and interviewing parents and wards
- Good grasp of child psychology
- Conflict resolution skill
- Ability to treat confidential matters secret
- Good understanding of legal procedure regarding school social work
- Intuitiveness in knowing a challenged student.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Stonetown High School, NJ
2009 – Present
School Social Worker
- Counsel students whose behavior, school progress and development show a need for assistance
- Counsel parents whose poor child rearing abilities are affecting their child
- Conduct social research
- Help students who may have suffered rape and take appropriate legal actions
- Counsel teachers
- File student records for school management
- Arrange for medical or psychological test for cases that require such
- Inform necessary authorities of cases of child abuse by parents and guardians.
EDUCATIONAL AND CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
- Stonetown High School, Princeton, New Jersey,2003
- William Patterson University, Bs. Sociology, 2008.
