Social Worker Mustachians?

[Cwadda]

I quit my job a few weeks ago to pursue a career more rewarding.  I'm interested in therapy and counseling, more specifically.  The programs I've looked at offer a Master's degree in social work.  Later on one could earn the LCSW (licensed clinical social worker).

Any Mustachians go this route?  Would you be able to talk about your careers a bit?

I'm really excited at the thought but also a bit nervous.

TIA!

[englishteacheralex]

My husband is an LCSW.

Getting licensed was a challenging, time consuming, and expensive process, and he has the student loans to prove it. However, he has never had any trouble finding a job. With an LCSW, the world is your oyster in terms of social work positions that pay ok.

My husband has been doing social work for the federal government for the past five years. He now makes $80k/year and is going to get a bump up in pay to $90k in a few months.

His stories from work are generally pretty gnarly. He has a very high tolerance for crazy people, and he has very, very good boundaries. Constitutionally, he is a very good fit for being a social worker who doesn't burn out (the jobs often have high turnover). Even so, he gets stressed out sometimes. He finds his work very meaningful, and rarely complains about it. Both of us feel lucky that we love our jobs.

He frequently advocates for getting one's LCSW, since it is so versatile. In his career, he has worked in foster care, a halfway house, a counselor for soldiers with PTSD, a private high school counselor, and for the past three years he's been working in the HUDVASH program for the VA. 

The only downside to a BA in social work is that if you want to have any kind of a decent salary, you really need to have a master's. So research programs carefully, because you wouldn't want to go into a crazy amount of student debt.

Good luck! This is all secondhand info from stuff I've heard my husband talk about over the years.

[Cwadda]

My husband is an LCSW.

Getting licensed was a challenging, time consuming, and expensive process, and he has the student loans to prove it. However, he has never had any trouble finding a job. With an LCSW, the world is your oyster in terms of social work positions that pay ok.

My husband has been doing social work for the federal government for the past five years. He now makes $80k/year and is going to get a bump up in pay to $90k in a few months.

His stories from work are generally pretty gnarly. He has a very high tolerance for crazy people, and he has very, very good boundaries. Constitutionally, he is a very good fit for being a social worker who doesn't burn out (the jobs often have high turnover). Even so, he gets stressed out sometimes. He finds his work very meaningful, and rarely complains about it. Both of us feel lucky that we love our jobs.

He frequently advocates for getting one's LCSW, since it is so versatile. In his career, he has worked in foster care, a halfway house, a counselor for soldiers with PTSD, a private high school counselor, and for the past three years he's been working in the HUDVASH program for the VA. 

The only downside to a BA in social work is that if you want to have any kind of a decent salary, you really need to have a master's. So research programs carefully, because you wouldn't want to go into a crazy amount of student debt.

Good luck! This is all secondhand info from stuff I've heard my husband talk about over the years.

Hey, thanks for the helpful post! The income part helps to know too, since the programs I'm looking at are decently expensive, so it's good to compare earning potential.

My S/O is going on to work with veterans with PTSD!