Five Interview Questions Social Workers Might Get Asked

What Interests You In Working With A Specific Population?
How Do You Manage Your Work-Life Balance?
How Would You Handle Crisis Intervention?
How Did You Handle It When A Client Disagreed With Your Approach?
What Are The Signs Of Abuse Or Neglect?

While some questions may be generic across occupations, it is important to know the specific interview questions you should prepare for as a social worker. Social workers provide an invaluable and specialized service to society, and agencies want to make sure a candidate is qualified to effectively help people. Social workers should come to an interview prepared to answer these questions.

What Interests You In Working With A Specific Population?

Social workers are likely to interview for positions at agencies or government organizations that work with a specific high-risk population. It is therefore logical for an agency to note the population they work with in the interview and ask what interests a candidate about working with that group. The answer can help an interviewer determine whether a candidate is passionate about helping their clients or understands the needs of the people they work with. This is among the most important interview questions you should prepare for as a social worker because most employers will ask it.

How Do You Manage Your Work-Life Balance?

This may seem like a somewhat invasive personal question, but it is an important one for agencies to ask. As stated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, social workers are frequently exposed to people in horrific situations such as abuse and poverty, which can take an emotional toll on anyone. These professionals need to be able to practice exceptional self-care and obtain psychiatric help if they need it. Employers may ask candidates how they handle the rigors of the job and maintain a healthy life outside of work.

How Would You Handle Crisis Intervention?

Although the likelihood of a crisis occurring differs depending on the population a social worker assists, a crisis intervention may become necessary at any time. Candidates should expect employers to inquire into their ability to handle conflict and crisis, both of which inevitably occur in social work. Interviewers might ask a candidate to describe a specific incident and how they handled it or gauge how a candidate reacts to a hypothetical scenario. Candidates should be honest and leverage their training to provide a satisfactory answer.

How Did You Handle It When A Client Disagreed With Your Approach?

Social workers deal with people and therefore need to accommodate the individual personalities, preferences and situations their clients face. Flexibility is more important than following the rulebook in this profession. Interviewers commonly ask this question because they want to understand how a candidate will react when a client is resistant to taking their advice, which can happen frequently. This is telling because it showcases a candidate’s creative thinking skills and ability to recognize their own errors. Candidates should be prepared to explain how they adjusted their approach based on the preferences of a client and learned from any mistakes they may have made in the process.

What Are The Signs Of Abuse Or Neglect?

This question is meant to test a candidate’s knowledge on a core role of the profession. Social workers need to be able to pick up on these cues in order to provide clients with the help they need. While not every social worker works with abuse survivors, it is still imperative to be able to identify the signs so the right help can be sought. This is true whether the social worker works with seniors, homeless populations or children.

Interviews for social work positions can be dynamic because there is so much to ascertain about a candidate’s abilities, approaches and knowledge. Come up with solid, demonstrative answers to these interview questions you should prepare for as a social worker to have the best chance of landing a job.