<p>I’ve never really understood the “it’s dangerous, don’t do it” thing… I mean, I guess I do, but if it wasn’t for people accepting the fact that certain lines of work can be dangerous, we’d have no cops or firefighters or paramedics or military.</p>
<p>Let me warn you off of social work while I still can. I do social work. It’s not what you think it’s going to be. Actually helping people is a very very tiny part of what you will be doing, if you get to do it at all. You’ll find that the whole social work industry is a scam designed to provide jobs for social work majors, and they don’t really want to help anybody. If they did, they’d be out of “customers” and their programs wouldn’t need to exist. What the social work bureaucrats want is for people to languish in their programs their entire lives, and become as dependent on them as possible, so that when the economy gets tough and budgets must be cut, they can say “look at all of the people who will be thrown onto the street if you cut our budget (and my six-figure salary)” but they don’t say that part out loud, and only the big wigs get that kind of pay.</p>
<p>Kick him in the balls</p>
<p>If you want to make a career of social work fine, but remember it’s a crappy job. Sorry but it is.</p>
<p>My sister was a social worker and was attacked twice, once by a teenage prostitute who she was driving to a medical appointment (prostitute was pregnant), another time by a drunk father who thought she (my sister) was his ex-wife.</p>
<p>You don’t get to carry a gun and police usually don’t accompany you, unless you are physically removing children from their parents (just one example). </p>
<p>I doubt you really need a Sociology or a “Human Services” degree to get one of these jobs, they are pretty easy to come by. Have you thought about majoring in something different, just so you have a degree that can lead to other opportunities in case you don’t like social work? Maybe IT, or Computer Science?</p>
<p>Most of the people I know that went into social work got out ASAP. The pay is low, it’s not always safe, and it doesn’t lead to anything bigger.</p>
<h2>I’ve never really understood the “it’s dangerous, don’t do it” thing… I mean, I guess I do, but if it wasn’t for people accepting the fact that certain lines of work can be dangerous, we’d have no cops or firefighters or paramedics or military. ~ DCHurrican</h2>
<p>I understand your point, but those people are all given training, tools, weapons, and authority to counter-act the dangerous aspects of their jobs.</p>
<p>Social workers don’t, in fact, they are often restricted from utilizing very basic forms of protection. Most of the time the local government agency or private company will have policies that disallow these people to carry a gun on duty, often they ban any form of weapon at all, including pepper spray.</p>
<p>Depending on your area, social workers go into very dangerous areas, and are required to enter a persons private property, which greatly increases an advantage of a would-be attacker. Combined with the fact that many of these people are highly unstable, drug abusers, or mentall ill, it’s can be a nasty combination.</p>
<p>from what I understand no one can get a job, so what exactly is a safe major?
honestly if being a social worker would make you happy then just do it</p>
<p>I do see where Marc is coming from with his views but if social work is the area in which you feel the most passion, then by all means go for it.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how important your earnings are to you, but I don’t believe a high wage would keep you as content as a job you actually enjoy.</p>
<p>My cousin had the same aspirations as you, double majored in social sciences and psychology at U of M, and genuinely loved being a social worker. Furthermore, her passions lead to a high position in a prominent non-profit organization… Not what I would consider ‘dead-end.’</p>
<p>I think if you can shadow with a social worker it would be a good thing for you to do. It does seem to be a field with a high level of burn out and low job satisfaction overall - which doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t love it.</p>
<p>That being said, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to consider what your next move would be if you don’t always love it. What would be your next move up? Would you consider law school and working as a juvenile public defender? Would you double major in psychology and possibly go on to graduate school in that field?</p>
<p>Engineering and CS may be well paid fields, but most people who want to be social workers aren’t attracted to them. Researching the options related to your interests seems reasonable and prudent, whether your father’s concerns have prompted the research or not.</p>
<p>Due to the relatively low pay scale for social workers I would not incur debt beyond a minimal amount for this degree - there are a lot of unhappy social workers posting on projectonstudentdebt.org because their jobs won’t pay their student loans.</p>
<p>don’t let your dad decide your major</p>
<p>Well, I was thinking that I would rather do something that I love, even though the pay isn’t great, then do something I hate and get a lot more pay.
And, if human services does not work out for me, I will still have my minor studies in psychology, so if I need to, I can lean on that part of my degree to get where I want to be.</p>
<p>^ And what will a minor in psychology do? </p>
<p>How do you know you will “love” being a social worker?</p>
<p>You don’t need a degree in Sociology to be a social worker. You could major in anything, these jobs are pretty simple to get. Why not major in something that can give you an option B if social work doesn’t fit your needs as you think it will?</p>
<p>Getting a Bachelors in Social work is probably a better way to go.</p>
<p>tappman and internship does not equal a job either. It gives you experience, but now almost everyone gets internships. Does everyone get a job? nope</p>
<p>Everyone that says “my so and so makes 6 figures in this job” is few and far between. </p>
<p>Your going in a field that is flooded by new graduates time after time expecting that they can change the world while really all they are doing is babying people to dish out money.</p>
<p>Your going into a field that gets crap pay, money may not by happiness, but it buys comfortability and financial stability, which provides less stress and a better chance at happiness without the worries of “how am i supposed to pay for my wife’s surgery when we have crappy insurance and no money?”</p>
<p>Your going into a field where no one is going to look highly of u, no one you are going to be working for respects you. Your taking care of a bunch of delinquents with your boss only giving a **** if they pay or not.</p>
<p>so tell me its not a dead end job, theres only a few that make a decent amount out of it and enjoy it.</p>
<p>people that go to college today is naive. Some people assume going to college proves they have higher intelligence than people that dont. In reality, there is a lot of dumb people that can’t think far into the future that graduate from there.</p>
<p>College is a good thing, whether you use ur degree for your only purpose of getting a degree and doing something else, or using it to specialize in. Its a bad thing if you don’t think things through and get into a crapload of debt. </p>
<p>There is a huge reason why people say college is not the best for everyone, because for a lot of people it isnt.</p>
<p>yeah there is definitely a lot of dumb people marc you is definitely right they never going to be able to buy comfortability.</p>
<p>yes im sure knowing that you don’t own your house and only rent brings a lot of comfortability. Or living in a bad neighborhood because you can’t buy that nice house a mile down.</p>
<p>I’m sure having to budget your grocery costs does as well. How about going out? can you go out without worrying how much a few drinks and dinner will be? How about that pos car that you’ve been driving for 14 years and hoping it doesn’t break because you can’t afford to fix it/get a new one.</p>
<p>sorry, i like piece of mind.</p>
<p>yeah I like piece of mind too. It’s nice to see someone else out there who’s smart enough to figure this all out.</p>
<p>could you guys (marc and jane) speak a little more clearly? Don’t understand much of your posts</p>
<p>God this is too ****ing funny.</p>
<p>Try speaking english and not spellarounds. Then posters can laugh with you</p>
<p>I think you’re missing the point.</p>