Pursuing social work as an undergraduate had never been the plan when I entered university. In fact, I didn’t even know it was a profession until I entered university. Hence, entering social work was a stumble of sorts, a happy one I may add, or even an unexpected adventure. It was unexpected, I was hesitant, but when I embraced it, I fell in love with it. Before I elaborate on why I decided not to pursue social work as a career, I will share why I took it in the first place.
Why I took on social work
My foray into social work started when I took a social work elective in year 3. I did not intend to major in social work, but a discussion during one of the social work tutorials made me reconsider my career track. We talked about human development stages, and the discussion on the young adult stage made me reflect on the decisions I have been making. The young adult stage is where an individual starts actively exploring to form their own identity and values. The tutorial group discussed about how Singaporean young adults are generally afraid to explore. We are afraid of deviating out of career tracks as this would mean taking detours and losing out to our peers. This made me ponder if I sufficiently explored what I wanted to do as a career. Was I just blindly following societal norms or have I spent sufficient time exploring who I am and what I want. I started to second guess my career track, and with the social work elective, it opened my eyes to a whole new possibility.
After finding out that there was a possibility for me to still qualify for a second major in social work, I decided to pursue that path. I was clear that this was something I had to do as it would affect my long term career. It did, however, came at a cost. I had to forgo my exchange and delay my graduation by either a semester or year. I was also not guaranteed to qualify for the second major even if I drop my exchange as I was already in year 4. Despite the uncertainty, I have never second-guessed my decision. I knew it was more important for me to explore my career options.
When I took the introductory module, I absolutely…just fell….in love with the subject. I still remembered the moment when they were teaching about the core values and ethics of social work. These are the moments in lecture where the content would just float over students. However, I lapped up every word the lecturer shared, because the more he shared, the more I realized these were the same values I lived by. I find it hard sometimes to find people that share some of these values, and here the professor was sharing that there is a whole profession out there that believes in these values. It was at that moment it felt like everything fell into place and I had found a profession to work in for the rest of my life.
Hence, I went to plead my case with the faculty to allow a year 4 to second major in social work. The day they approved my application, I was ecstatic.
I treasured the opportunity to study social work immensely. It took a lot of effort (both mine and the school) for me to be given this chance. I especially enjoyed my social work internship as it gave me the opportunity to practice the skills I was taught and help people tangibly. While I did not manage to close every case successfully, I thought it was a privilege to be able to struggle and be present with these individuals in their journey. How can I forget the makcik who has dementia and would unceasingly thank us when we were just doing our job? Or the utter helplessness I felt when I heard about the uncle who felt trapped by the system due to his educational background and having to provide for his foreign wife and son with special needs. These are memories that I will hold dear to my heart that remind me how important it is to just be with people in their moments of crisis. What was more amazing was the superb supervisors I was attached to. My first internship was with a senior social worker who did a mid-career switch. She was genuine and patient and took her time to guide my thought process and answer my many questions. She truly loved her job and being part of her client and supervisee’s life. There was once I asked her, if she was given an opportunity to go management would she say yes, and she told me that she really enjoyed casework and would be reluctant to take up a full management role. My second supervisor, a medical social worker, truly had a heart for the vulnerable and elderly. He spoke in the most caring tone and would go the extra mile to be with his patients. I also didn’t spare him from my endless barrage of questions, and he gave me very thoughtful answers despite the heavy MSW workload; which often meant that he had to OT after our supervision sessions. What struck me especially about his compassion was in the circumstances he showed it. When I interned, it was during the height of the pandemic and xenophobic sentiments were more clearly felt due to job losses. My supervisor, though being a foreigner, still stayed firm to the social work values and showed unwavering care and commitment to his clients. I truly learned so much from these people.
However, it was not all a bed of roses.
My struggles with the social work profession
I struggled with mainly 2 things about the profession. I feared having compassion fatigue and getting frustrated at the impact of my work.
Compassion fatigue is a condition that is caused by emotional and physical exhaustion leading to a diminished ability to empathise with others. During my internships, while I met numerous social workers who are passionate about their jobs, I had also seen workers that have lost their passion and stayed on the job just to pay the bills. They may have had a fire and interest in helping people at the start, but gradually that may have diminished over the years.
After my brief stint, I can see why.
Social workers face tremendous caseload pressure, meet people with complex social problems and can be the subject of verbal abuse. While facing all that, they must show compassion and kindness to their clients daily. It is because of this, compassion fatigue sets in, and their ability to care and empathise with their clients is greatly reduced. I greatly feared having compassion fatigue. If I was honest to myself, I did feel it edging in during my internship stint. I feared that if I became a full-time worker and did not handle my emotions well, I will be there for my clients only because of my professional duty and not because I genuinely care for them. I feared that my sincerity and genuineness to help people will fade because I am drawn down by the relentless grinding of casework day in and day out.
The second reason was the fear of getting frustrated at the impact of my work. What drew me into social work was the profession’s main goal to do good. I wanted to choose a career that maximises the good I can do. Well, what better way to do it than to choose the helping profession right? Social work allowed me to interact intimately with families and help them practically with their struggles and problems. This made the work very meaningful.
However, along the way I realised it can get quite frustrating. Some of the ways to help families involve changes at the systemic level, and as a case worker, I was not able to help with that. One memorable case that illustrates this was the time that I had to help an elderly lady with dementia find post-discharge accommodation. I worked a lot with the daughter, but it was hard for me to move the case as there was a nursing home bed crunch caused indirectly by the pandemic. We explored other ways of caring for the patient such as getting the patient’s other children to care for her, but that wasn’t possible as the patient had disruptive behavioural problems caused by the dementia. It was deeply frustrating and though I was on this case quite early, I had to end my internship without securing long term accommodation for the patient. It highlighted to me that some of the problems were systemic and could only be resolved at a policy level.
It dawned on me that as a social worker, my impact is only with 1 family at a time. However, if I was involved with policy planning, I would be able to impact so much more. I would be able to prepare for contingencies such as the one faced by my patient, so that families will not face the same struggles that my patient faced. I realised that if I was interested in the concept of ‘maximum good’, it may be more efficient instead to be working at the policy level where the research I do can impact change at the population level.
These 2 reasons led me to reconsider entering the social work profession full time. While the profession aligned with my personal values, I wasn’t sure if I could stay genuine and sincere in each case and if I would be frustrated with impacting lives on a case-level basis. Some of the problems faced by my clients felt systemic and I may be able to help more people if I took on a policy-making role.
What I eventually applied for
I decided to apply for non social work roles months before graduation, in URA and HDB which are the statutory boards that influence housing market policies. Real estate was still close to my heart and being in a role that influences housing policies would be a good way to marry my knowledge of real estate and interest in helping people. Housing market policies affect the lives of all and being able to play a role in ensuring affordable housing would be meaningful. Fast forward 1 month from application, 1 written essay and 2 interviews later, I was excited to receive and accept an offer from URA as a property market analyst.
Do I regret taking a detour to study social work you may ask? Honestly, no. Despite the twists and turns, and eventually landing back at a role that involved real estate, I have no regrets. I am grateful for the chance to explore what I was convicted by and to open my eyes to the social work profession. Despite choosing not to work in the field, I gained tremendous respect for those in it. While their influence to the number of lives is smaller in comparison to a policy-maker, but their impact to each life often weighs more. Social workers work with people in their darkest moments and can be a light for them, presenting hope for a way out. Social workers are our last line of defence to those left on the margins, our angels to pick up those that fall between the cracks of policy and our conscience to advocate for social justice when things are not right. The role of a social worker is important and continues to play a crucial role in our society.
Social workers are our last line of defence to those left on the margins, our angels to pick up those that fall between the cracks of policy and our conscience to advocate for social justice when things are not right.
Closing thoughts about choosing a career
A career is ultimately a personal choice. It affects most of our waking hours in a week, our mood at the end of our days, the community and people we interact with, and our lifestyle and retirement options. It is a weighty matter that many of us have put much thought into it. Our generation have also had to grapple (fortunately!) with things like work-life balance, career growth and mid-career switches. All of this contributes to the tussle and conflict in our minds and hearts on what it means to have a good job.
These are answers that only we can answer as we reflect on the values and things that are important to us. It can be a terrifying exercise as we may realise that the things we have been holding on to or pursuing are things we never really cared about. I hope if that happens, we can all be gracious and kind to ourselves. As students, educational pathways are mostly linear and the age of information allow us to plan and ‘optimise’ our life as much as possible. However as we enter adulthood, we must realise that careers are never linear. There will be left turns, right turns or even 2 steps back to find a profession that is truly fulfilling for us.
However as we enter adulthood, we must realise that careers are never linear. There will be left turns, right turns or even 2 steps back to find a profession that is truly fulfilling for us.
It can be quite frightening because it is something that our generation have never really got to contend with, but it is also exciting as you never know what you may hope to find. Just like how I took the plunge to forgo my exchange to take up social work, may you find your own stumble of sorts and unexpected adventure as you explore and find a profession truly meaningful to you.
