Cindy Snell.
For nearly 20 years, Cindy Snell has prepared students for professional success.
As director of Career Services and Alumni Relations at the Boston College School of Social Work, she’s connected students with potential employers, hosted resume-writing workshops, managed a huge jobs database, and much more.
Now she’s written the book on social work careers—literally.
“The Social Work Career Guidebook: How to Land Your Ideal Job and Build a Legacy,” published by NASW Press, guides readers through the process of exploring career options, applying for jobs, interviewing, evaluating offers, negotiating salaries, and creating a strategy for continued career advancement.
The book is designed for social workers at all stages of their careers, whether they are pursuing a social work degree or looking to broaden their professional horizons after many years in the field.
And it’s not only useful for individual readers. Snell says advisors, faculty, and supervisors can use interactive exercises in the book to engage small groups in discussions focused on defining career interests, setting professional goals, and writing effective professional statements.
“We wrote this book to share the wisdom and experience we have gathered over the years and allow readers to feel informed, supported, and in charge of their career progression,” Snell and her co-authors, Michelle Woods, director of career services at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, and Jennifer Luna, former director of the DiNitto Center for Career Services at the University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work, say in the guide. “With knowledge in hand, job searchers can feel more confident and better able to be agents of change in their own career advancement.”
The first chapter of your book focuses on the depth and breadth of the social work profession, including the roles that social workers can pursue and the populations they can work with. What advice do you have for M.S.W. students who have no clue what they want to do?
Social work is a giving field, so often you will find the work most rewarding and impactful if it aligns with what you are good at and what you value. In the book, we emphasize the importance of self-assessment and provide exercise to enable you to take stock of your skills and reflect on past experiences, even if they’re not related to social work. You’ll also pinpoint the kinds of relationships you want to have with the people you work with and the kinds of settings where you think you’d thrive.
What’s your favorite exercise in the book?
I work with a lot of MSW students, and I often ask them what they’re looking for in a career. They routinely say “good supervision,” but sometimes they don’t know what that means for them. And so we have a set of activities that help you define what good supervision is for you at the moment. What is the relationship that you want to have with your supervisor? Is it a mentor? Is it a teacher? Is it someone who challenges you?
Exercises help identify what behaviors demonstrate this definition for you. For example, if you’re looking for an advocate, is that someone who you meet with once a week to update them on what you’re working on so that they can make sure the powers that be know what you’re doing? Or is it someone who challenges you to go outside of your comfort zone to continue to grow professionally? This activity is really helpful throughout the career lifespan to see what kind of supervisor allows you to thrive at any moment in your career.
Another chapter of your book focuses on helping social workers create an engaging and welcoming online presence. What tips do you have for social workers who want to stand out online in a crowded market?
I think many social workers still feel uncomfortable marketing themselves. They’re great at advocating for the populations they work with, but maybe not as great at articulating their own value to the field. In the book, we help you identify career-defining moments that you’re proud of. These moments can help you differentiate yourself from your colleagues and zero in on the long-lasting impact that you can have in this field.
Social workers make an impact on a daily basis, but it’s really important for them to step back and examine the long term impact of the work they do, whether that’s improving a program or identifying a need and then creating an intervention to address that need.
You also provide extensive guidelines for preparing for and succeeding in a job interview. What’s the key to acing a job interview?
It’s really important to prepare for interviews by writing little stories as examples that demonstrate the skills and experiences that your prospective employer is looking for. These could be vignettes in which you demonstrated good strategic planning or the ability to be adaptable. But regardless of what the specifics are, you should have them ready to go so you won’t have to think of an answer to a tough question off the top of your head.
Let’s say a social worker follows your tips and secures two job offers. What should that social worker keep in mind when evaluating the options?
In the book, we provide charts and exercises to evaluate job offers. Our biggest message is this: Do not base your decision solely on salary. Consider the skills you want to gain, the knowledge you want to build in a specific area. Pay attention to the culture that you find most rewarding, whether it's the pace of the work or the mission of the organizations. And then lastly, when you're looking at compensation, consider salaries, but also benefits and your prospective employers’ commitments to your professional advancement. This way of thinking will provide a framework for you to then evaluate the various jobs to make sure they’d be meeting your needs.
You write that this book “is not intended to be read from cover to cover and then put back on the shelf. It is meant to be an interactive reference that social workers can employ at any time in their career.” In the ideal scenario, how do you envision social workers using your book to help them reach their full potential?
Our philosophy is to inform, to engage, and to inspire. Sometimes you’re going to want to look at sample interview questions because you’re preparing for an interview. Other times, you’ll want to revise your professional summary, so you’ll look up how to do that. When you receive two job offers, you’ll flip to the exercise that helps you figure out which one is best for you.
Career decision making and job hunting can be daunting, frustrating, and sometimes demoralizing. And so we’re really hoping this book is inspiring as well. There is a place for everyone in the field of social work to make a contribution, and if you approach your career journey in a planful way—if you feel empowered to make informed decisions—you can really make a positive contribution. We talk a lot about legacy throughout your career, leaving a mark that you’re proud of and that someone else can take up and continue forward.
