Review: 101 Careers in Social Work (2009)

101 Careers in Social Work (2009), by Jessica Ritter, Halaevalu Vaakalahi, and Mary Kiernan-Stern, is a comprehensive career guide that highlights the interdisciplinary nature of social work and unconventional, cutting-edge career options with a social work degree. For current and advanced social work students, this book may not meet your expectations because it only provides basic career information. Overall, it is a very reliable resource for career services and library bookshelves.

This book is an essential career guide for those new to social work. It summarizes the origins of social work, explains educational requirements and licensure process, and provides financial aid and job hunting tips. The career sections include an overview of the practice area, sample job titles, practice area competencies and skills, best and challenging aspects of the job (including firsthand accounts), compensation and employment outlook, self-assessment checklist, recommended readings and websites, and exercises to test your knowledge of the specific social work area. I highly recommend this book for career planning and exploration.

This book covers 101 social work career paths in the following areas:

1. Child Welfare
2. School-Based and School-Linked Services
3. Older Adults (Gerontology)
4. Health Care
5. Mental Health and Addiction
6. Crisis Intervention
7. Criminal Justice and the Legal Arena
8. Forensic Social Work
9. International Social Work and Human Rights
10. Poverty and Homelessness
11. Politics and Public Policy
12. Community Practice
13. Human Service Organizations
14. Research and Academia
15. Non-Traditional Social Work (Journalist, Attorney, Mediator, and more)