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)

Census: More young adults live in big cities than suburbs

According to the U.S. Census, for the first time in a century, most of America's largest cities are growing at a faster rate than their surrounding suburbs. In a weak job market, young adults are shunning home-buying and staying put in bustling urban centers.

Driving the resurgence are young adults, who are delaying careers, marriage and having children amid persistently high unemployment. Burdened with college debt or toiling in temporary, lower-wage positions, they are spurning homeownership in the suburbs for shorter-term, no-strings-attached apartment living, public transit and proximity to potential jobs in larger cities.

While economists tend to believe the city boom is temporary, that is not stopping many city planning agencies and apartment developers from seeking to boost their appeal to the sizable demographic of 18-to-29-year olds. They make up roughly 1 in 6 Americans, and some sociologists are calling them "generation rent." The planners and developers are betting on young Americans' continued interest in urban living, sensing that some longer-term changes such as decreased reliance on cars may be afoot.

This is the reality: emerging as a new generation of renters due to stricter mortgage requirements and mounting student loan debt. If you can live in a city with a superior mass transit system, you won't need to heavily rely on a car. Big vibrant cities also have a greater concentration of career-advancing jobs. It is also difficult to qualify for a credit card or line of credit from a financial institution if your debt-to-income ratio is too high. Are we Generation Debt?

Daily Finance: America's Biggest Gifts

Happy Independence Day! While people play American patriotic music, fire up the grills and enjoy the fireworks, Daily Finance reminds us how our American government influenced history, rebuilt nations, and changed the way we live today. You may not agree with everything listed on the website, but I am a proud American and feel thankful to be a citizen of this great nation. Look at America's most expensive gifts in history:

1. Louisiana Purchase
   
2. Marshall Plan (WWII)
   
3. Manhattan Project (WWII)
   
4. The Cold War
   
5. Apollo Moon Landing
   
6. Interstate Highway System
   
7. The Wall Street Bailout
   

Let's not forget this rendition of "God Bless America" by Celine Dion.