Review: SAGE Guide to Social Work Careers (2019)

SAGE Guide to Social Work Careers: Your Journey to Advocacy (2019) by Melissa Bird, PhD is a career book about macro social work practice. Unlike the other career books, this book does not focus on clinical work. Rather, it provides guidance for social work students whose dreams and aspirations are leading them toward a career in social justice and advocacy work. In macro social work, students learn this under other names such as community practice or policy practice. Ultimately this book provides students and professionals with a strategy that can be used to effect broad policy change in all political climates: community engagement, policy and legislation.

Each chapter has stories from the profession, job descriptions from the practice area, as well as advocacy and policy examples in each practice area. I am thankful for this book because there is little literature out there that focuses specifically on the needs of macro social workers. Macro social work practice is underrepresented in the social work profession, yet the origins and foundation of social work is rooted in macro-level processes (e.g. the settlement house movement, Progressive era, and New Deal policies such as Social Security, disability insurance, workers' compensation, and so forth). This timely book, based on the author's own experience as a social worker in political advocacy, is needed to encourage more social work students that they can have a career in macro social work practice. While the career path is more entrepreneurial than the typical requirements for a clinical social worker, the experiences gained can be rewarding and life-changing, particularly if you work on a policy that will benefit a population in need. Overall, I highly recommend this invaluable resource for anyone who is considering macro social work practice. I believe that everyone should follow their passion and use the available resources to turn those aspirations into a career, whether it's through direct work with individuals or advocating on behalf of groups in the policy arena. Social work is not simply clinical work; it a microcosm of the different ways in which we as a profession effect social change.

This book contains the following chapters:

1. Follow Your Passion, Not Just a Path
2. Poverty
3. Child Welfare
4. Health Care
5. Disability
6. Mental Health
7. Substance Abuse
8. Aging
9. Criminal Justice
10. Advice for Moving Forward (resume, interview, etc.)