10 Steps from Job Application to Job Interview | Blog & News | Social Work & Social Care Hub | Search, Find & Refer | One Stop Social
[vc_row bg_type=”” dima_canvas_style=”” translate_x=”0″ dima_z_index=”0″ delay=”” animate_item=”” delay_duration=”” delay_offset=””][vc_column bg_type=”” dima_canvas_style=”” min_height=”” translate_x=”0″ dima_z_index=”0″ delay=”” delay_duration=”” delay_offset=””][text delay=”” delay_duration=”” delay_offset=”” id=”” class=””]When completing application forms, how do you feel about them? For most, it can be an anxious and somewhat daunting experience, which often includes a combination of dread and boredom. However, what do you need to know in order to make it through? Well, below we have offered some excellent pointers and examples to help demystify the experience!
Make it easy for the short-Lister
Notice what the organisation or service is asking for within the essential and desirable job description. You will often have clues that you can use, such as using the headings:
Analyse the person specification and BE CLEAR
“Go through the job and worker descriptions and extract the key criteria they are looking for. When filling in the application form, place each criterion as a heading and use examples from practice to demonstrate how you have met those criteria. It may seem simplistic but if you are explicit that you are suitable for the job role, then an interview is guaranteed.” Source: Guardian.
General Competency questions in Application Forms
If you are completing several application forms at once, as is often the case, you can use the above headings to create a ‘bulk answer’ crib sheet. This will help you evidence your work consistently whilst also reducing chances of you becoming complacent.
Use the STAR approach to help evidence examples
Using the above formula will assist in offering structure to your answers, whilst also keeping them SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Timely. Be concise and to the point. Have a go: Pick a question and share a STAR example
Personal Statement strategies
Completing the personal statements/specifications section is by far the most difficult task to undertake in any application form. As such, develop strategies to help guide you through this processes. For example:
Example – Specification requirement – about commitment to promoting Equal Opportunities:
‘I have always tried to ensure in my personal and work life that I am sensitive to and inclusive of the cultures and circumstances of other people. In 2006, I worked as a mentor/facilitator to a group of students on the Aim Higher project to encourage pupils from non-traditional backgrounds to consider university. I designed projects and activities that recognised and focused on the diverse experience within the group to ensure participation. The programme was successful for the pupils and a rewarding learning experience for me. The experience showed me that working together with mutual respect is more productive and rewarding.’
We hope this has offered you with some useful guidance in relation to application form completion. Please feel free to download or save a copy of this. The above information has been used and delivered to Social Work Students, Social Workers and Return Social Workers as well as Care Professionals so as to help increase employment opportunities.[/text][callout type=”style_one” delay=”” delay_duration=”” delay_offset=”” title=”We have also completed the following guidance” message=”Further resources to help you land that perfect job” title_color=”” text_color=”” bg_image=”” href=”” id=”” class=”” style=””][button text=”10 Steps from Job Application to Job Interview” type=”” color_class=”” lightbox=”” delay=”” delay_duration=”” delay_offset=”” href=”https://www.onestopsocial.co.uk/10-steps-from-job-application-to-job-interview-one-stop-social/” title=”” popup_content=”” id=”” class=”” style=””][clear by=”10px” id=”” class=””][button text=”Social Work Interview Questions: What you need to know” type=”” color_class=”” lightbox=”” delay=”” delay_duration=”” delay_offset=”” href=”https://www.onestopsocial.co.uk/social-work-interview-questions-need-know/” title=”” popup_content=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” tutorials=””][/callout][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Social Personnel and Parker Rose Group are working exclusively in partnership with Medway Council to fulfil permanent Children’s Social Worker vacancies.
It has a well defined career progression scheme, fast tracking your career and supporting your ambitions. They also have Competitive salaries and a high levels of staff satisfaction – particularly in regards to support – with a progressive learning culture and exceptional benefits, which include:
If you want to work in a fast paced, but supportive and nurturing environment then why not consider Medway. For more information or to discuss the opportunity in more detail contact: 02039088398 or email your CV to: perm@socialpersonnel.com and one of our experienced recruiters will be happy to talk you through it.
A career in social work can be very rewarding yet challenging at times. Tough decisions must be made under pressure and sometimes the media attention can be high profile and negative when things go seriously wrong. Having said that, social workers do a hugely valuable job in supporting individuals and their families through difficult times to ensure that vulnerable children and adults are safeguarded from harm. The role is truly vocational; it is one that helps to improve outcomes in people’s lives.
The skills of a qualified social worker are varied; you should be able to clearly demonstrate the ability to build working relationships with service users and professionals, possess excellent communication and listening skills, and finally the ability to problem solve and use professional judgement to make difficult decisions that might not always be well received by those you are trying to help.
The need for excellent practitioners in social work is even more important and in the New Year, we often see a large increase in the number of roles available for both qualified children and adult social workers. So, if you’re planning to look for a new job this New Year here are some tips to help you get started:
Ensure your CV is up to date and well presented
Your CV should be up to date with your experience,
training and accurate dates of your previous employment. Remember that your CV
is the first thing an employer sees so it is crucial to ensure there are no
spelling or grammar errors and that any gaps in your employment history are
explained.
Employers and recruiters will want to know that you have the mandatory qualifications needed for the job. Whether you’ve completed an approved degree in social work, have a degree in another subject and have completed a postgraduate social work qualification or undergone additional training during your social work career, don’t forget to include all your relevant education.
Prepare for your interview
Most social work interviews are carried out by a panel. The interview is
likely to include tests in a range of formats, including practical and written
tests, in-tray exercises and traditional questions and answers. Additionally,
some councils will undertake a full assessment or recruitment day too. For more
senior roles, there will be a two-stage interview process; stage one will be with HR and hiring
managers and stage two is often a presentation and panel discussion with other
managers.
Before your
interview, research the organisation or council in detail and check their
website to familiarise yourself with things such as their ethos, staff
structure and recent news or developments. Whatever the role you are
interviewing for, make sure you have read the most recent and relevant
inspection reports and are prepared to answer questions about why you want to
work for the particular council or borough. Your preparation will show your
commitment to the role as well as organisational skills. You should also
prepare a few questions to ask your interviewer about the role and working
environment.
Here are some example questions to help you prepare:
Think about the questions you are likely to be asked and prepare responses with clear examples of your work or situations you have experienced as they relate to the questions. Don’t be afraid to make your answers true to yourself and don’t be afraid to make it personal. For example, if you are asked, what made you go into social work, if it was because of a personal experience of someone in care inspiring you, don’t be afraid tell this to your interviewer!
Take
some time now to prepare your ideas and thoughts on common social work topics
which are appearing in interview questions including:
Framing
your answers to reflect your capabilities in work
You
should now be prepared with some answers on the technical side of social work
but increasingly employers are assessing your capabilities as a qualified
social worker. Employers want to be confident you can take on all aspects of
the job and the key capabilities which come up in interviews include:
So, make sure you have examples of what these capabilities mean to you and your experience in these areas. Be clear to outline an example to show these, what you did and then the impact it had on your work.
After your interview, remember to follow up with
your recruitment consultant to receive feedback from your interview, this can
help you in your search or to act upon any successful news to secure your new
role.
For further information on Hays Social Care please visit: www.hays.co.uk/socialcare
Contributed by Roop Bhumbra, Director at Hays Social Care
Find out more from Hays Social Care
If you’re interested in learning more about how Hays Social Care can support your job-seeking process, come to our convention for social work and care on 24th January 2019. They’ll be running a workshop on “Working Effectively in Times of Austerity” and you’ll get to chat to their team in the exhibition too!
2018 has
been a pivotal year for One Stop Social. We have turned the page from being a
fledgling organization, progressing to grow our core staff by 400%. 2018 has
seen One Stop Social truly become the voice of Social Work and Social Care in
the UK, as our reputation for representing the Social Work profession, as well
as providing excellent resources and training to support practitioners grows.
The following is an overview of our work and development in 2018:
Work & Care Together
In June, we held our first Social Work & Care Convention ‘Work and Care Together’, in Manchester. We had over 500 attendees, who engaged with the different training workshops and we showcased over 25 front-line services. We’re immensely proud of this first success. It went so well that we are doing it all over again, only this time in London! On Thursday 24th January 2019 we’re setting up shop in the Park Plaza Riverbank and bringing our digital hub for social work and care into the vibrant streets of London!
We are unbelievably excited about this and can’t wait for the big day. Hope to see you all there!
OSS Membership
One of our biggest developments from 2018 has got to be One Stop Social’s new membership scheme. In October, we launched our own Social Work & Care Membership, which is growing week by week and we can’t wait to see it grow more in 2019. The Membership is our way of offering support, development and showing our gratitude to social workers across the UK! We offer social workers up to 25% off of social work books, access thousands of e-journals, 90% off social work insurance packages, access to our rewards and discount portal and entry into our monthly lottery draw.
Employer Standards for Social Workers
Matt
Hughes (Director) is now involved in reviewing the employer standards for
social workers across England. This is being facilitated by the Local Government
Association (LGA) and features key partners within Social Work, including both
Chief Social Workers, Department for Education, Department for Health and
Social Care, BASW, Unison and the Open university. To have our directors
involved in such work is very exciting, and he will continue championing social
work and good practice throughout the process.
Internship Development Scheme
Our team
has been growing this year with help from our Internship Development Programme
with the University of Salford, which first began in February. From this we
have had 3 Post-Graduates who achieved 2 Merits and 1 Distinction. Our work has
also been boosted by a further cohort of undergraduate students from Salford
University who are all helping us support our sector to the best of our
abilities. Elena, our first intern, is now fully employed with us and her
energy and passion has added something extra to One Stop Social. We are all
very proud of them and we hope to continue this partnership throughout next
year.
Greater Manchester Social Work Academy (GMSWA)
In March,
we began working with the GMSWA as the external communications lead, working on
their marketing and presence, so that more social workers could learn about the
great practice being facilitated. Since then, we’ve designed and developed
their website, and discovered a drive to boosting their brand awareness within
the social work community in Greater Manchester. Working with the teaching
partnership has allowed us to further our passion for improving communications
within the sector, an area which we’ve developed further this year by working
with great organisations like Bedspace and Care Sourcer. In 2019 we hope to
develop these existing partnerships and collaborate with more services as
passionate about social work and care as we are.
Social Work Connect
In June we began working in partnership with Siobhan Maclean and Kirwin Maclean Associates in helping them set up, promote and manage social work connect website. This is a subscription only website provides users with all the functionality of the social work theory app along with lots of additional new material such as ‘lunchtime learning’, ‘theory library’, ‘Critical Reflection & Analysis’, ‘SHARE Tools’ and the ‘Envelope Activity’. This has involved working with a number of services and Local Authorities throughout England and Wales. Find out more about the fantastic website here:
Staffordshire Adult’s Social Care Learning Academy
In October,
we started working with Staffordshire County Council (Adult’s Service) in
setting up, designing and creating their Adult’s Social Care Learning Academy. This
work will continue into the new year, though we’ve already helped with their
practice education service and social work apprenticeships. It’s been great to
be working directly with the team at Staffordshire to put the systems in place
for good practice.
Social Work & Care Training
This year
we’ve been keen to make sure we’re not just a digital company and to stay
connected to front-line practice, and so we’ve worked to run high quality
training for a number of partner organisations. We work closely with Hays
Social Care, to run training events for their locum staff on a variety of
specialist areas within social work and care. We also work with established
training providers to help improve the access to training for social workers
and care professionals across the country. We know skills development is a key
part of good practice, so we want to help facilitate this as much as possible.
Social Work & Care Jobs Board & CV Library
A core part
of One Stop Social has always been to aid the recruitment process within social
work and care. We recognise it’s not easy and want to do our part, which takes
the form of a Jobs Board with up to date listings, that are rolling every 30
days. We try to make sure the job adverts on our site are all current, so that
our community of professionals can make informed decisions for their future.
Practice Educator Service
This year we’ve further developed our consortium of practice
educators in England and Wales. We have some fantastic practitioners as part of
our extended One Stop Social team, who help support good practice and train the
future generations of social workers. In 2019 we will further develop this area
of service delivery.
New Offices in Central Manchester
In
December, we moved to our new offices based in Central Manchester. Working from
the heart of Manchester has given our team a real drive and is allowing us to
do more to improve our hub.
New Director
2018 has
brought lots of changes to our team, but we remain a front-line practitioner
led service. We have been joined by new Director, Tristan Johnson, who’s a
qualified Social Worker and AMHP. He is also keen to develop the ‘By Social
Workers, for Social Workers’ ethos of One Stop Social.
“I am very
pleased to join One Stop Social and further develop Matt Hughes vision for a
central hub for social workers and care professionals. The whole team works so
hard to support the social work and social care community, so I’m really
pleased to be able to contribute. With our new membership scheme and our Work
and Care Together events, 2018 has been a year of great change and progress for
us. We want to further develop One Stop Social as ‘the voice’ for Social Work
in the UK and I know 2019 has exciting things in store for our sector.”
We are
extremely looking forward to the New Year and can’t wait to grow even more! We hope
you all had a lovely holiday and wish you a very Happy New Year from the whole
One Stop Social Team.
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As the pace of the world increases due to advances in globalisation and technology, it is inevitable the problems we face as individuals and as a society will continue to evolve and become more complex. Our world needs dedicated, passionate and career – orientated social workers to help us with these problems.
Becoming a social worker offers you the opportunity to enter many different career paths, from direct clinical practice to administration and advocacy roles in the government and non-profit organisations. Social workers are even found in many corporate settings where they craft corporate social responsibility programs and community engagement as well as help employees with workplace challenges.
The many different routes you can take in social work are explained below:
As a care worker you’ll support people with all aspects of their day to day living, including social and physical activities, personal care, mobility and meal times.
Care workers can work in a care home, in people’s own homes or in the community. Care workers who work in the community are sometimes called domiciliary carers which often involve travelling to different people’s houses.
Rehabilitation workers support people to live independently, often following an illness or accident, and help them access support with housing, finance, social activities and life skills such as cooking or budgeting.
The role might include:
Advocacy workers support vulnerable people to make decisions and have their voice heard when decisions are being made about their lives. Securing people’s rights, such as accessing services and ensures that people are involved in their own care and support planning.
As an advocacy worker you might support people with decisions around housing, disability living allowance, care planning, medical decisions, financial planning and hospital admissions. For example you might provide advocacy for someone with a learning disability and support them to make decisions about getting carers in their own home or living in supported living.
Child welfare social workers serve some of the most vulnerable children, youths, and families. Social workers specialise in building on the strengths of families and helping them to provide a safe and nurturing environment for children and youths. However, when families are unable to do this, social workers must intervene to protect the children from harm. Child welfare social workers ensure that children and youths who have experienced abuse or neglect are supported through a range of services.
Clinical social workers are one of the nation’s largest groups of providers of mental health services. They provide mental health services in both urban and rural settings, where they may be the only licensed provider of mental health services available. Mental health social workers empower individuals with mental illness—and their families, carers, and communities—to lead fulfilling, independent lives. Through therapy, support, and advocacy, they enable people to manage the social factors in their lives—like relationships, housing, and employment—that allow them to get well and stay well. Building resilience in individuals, their networks, and their communities transforms people’s well-being and improves our society and economy.
Duties may include:
Those seeking to join this meaningful profession can start by reading our news pieces on how to get started with a career in social work – and if you haven’t already signed up for our newsletter, sign up here for latest social work and care related blogs, jobs , training events and more!
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Eden Brown Synergy have confirmed their attendance at Work and Care Together on Monday 11th June!
As one of the longest established public sector recruitment suppliers in the UK, we know they’ll bring some fantastic experience to One Stop Social’s first convention! Make sure you’ve registered for a free ticket to attend and speak with one of their specialist professionals to help you find your next role.[/vc_column_text][vc_cta h2=”Work & Care Together” txt_align=”center” add_button=”bottom” btn_title=”Book Now” btn_color=”warning” btn_align=”center” btn_link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eventbrite.co.uk%2Fe%2Fwork-and-care-together-tickets-44223467582||target:%20_blank|rel:nofollow”]Book your free general admission ticket at our eventbrite page now[/vc_cta][vc_column_text]With a client base that spans social services departments as well as private, non-statutory and voluntary organisations throughout the UK, Eden Brown Synergy has a long track record of placing qualified social workers and care professionals into a range of locum and permanent roles.
Their national network of highly specialist social care consultants have developed a network of candidates and clients across the country resulting in a partnership with over 180 Local Authorities, organisations such as CAFCASS and Action for Children , as well as a large range of private fostering agencies, hospitals and care providers.
Whether you are a social care professional looking for your next role or an employer looking to secure the best talent, you will find Eden Brown Synergy to be a trusted partner not just today – but for the long term.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”1845″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
At Eden Brown Synergy, we never forget that you are an individual – and as a professional with as demanding and challenging a career as social care – they know that the right fit is vital.
Eden Brown Synergy has a long track record of recruiting within the social care sector and has worked in active partnership with a large number of Local Authorities, NHS Trusts, charities and non-statutory government bodies.[/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”See Eden Brown Synergy Latest Jobs” color=”warning” size=”lg” align=”center” button_block=”true” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.onestopsocial.co.uk%2Ffind-a-job%2F||target:%20_blank|rel:nofollow”][vc_cta h2=”What we do” txt_align=”center”]
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