Entry-Level Social Worker Resume Examples & Templates
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Entry-level social workers play a crucial role in helping people manage and cope with problems in everyday life. With our expertly crafted entry-level social worker resume sample and pro tips, we’ll help you write a resume that showcases your expert interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills.
Start by editing this sample resume for an entry-level social worker job, or explore our library of customizable resume templates to find a template that matches your unique style.
Entry-level social worker resume sample (text version)
Elizabeth Elliot
Los Angeles, CA 90023
555 555 555
(555) 555-5555
example@example.com
Summary Statement
Entry-level student with a social worker degree, garnering a strong educational background in children and family evaluation and appropriate interventions. Excellent client assessment skills and resource management abilities to locate and promote appropriate community services for clients. Seeking to leverage my background with education into a medical or family social worker role with a progressive company.
Skills
- Record keeping
- Report writing
- Cultural sensitivity
- Crisis management
- MS Office
- Active listening
- Time management
- Attention to detail
Professional Skills
Collaboration
Forged community connections benefiting clients and families.
Used effective negotiation and diplomacy skills, reducing crisis risk by 30%.
Championed community alliance-building strategy, integrating over 200 volunteers and implementing social work and mediation best practices.
Case Management
- Assisted social workers with over 80 record reviews to facilitate improved performance and quality assurance.
- Obtained and supplied information to coordinating agencies to provide the best possible guidance to clients’ cases.
- Performed administrative duties, copying, filing and distributing mail to support staff tasks.
Child Care Support
- Provided services to children for enhancing leadership skills and coping strategies relating to peer and family pressures.
- Voiced concerns for children in relation to societal and behavioral aspects affecting communication skills.
- Enhanced teamwork and interpersonal skills by instructing 24 children on interactive and collaborative activities.
Work History
- October 2022 – Current
Urban Quality Living – Los Angeles, CA
Social Worker – Volunteer - September 2021 – May 2022
Volunteers Of America – Los Angeles, CA
Social Work Student Intern - June 2018 – March 2020
Downtown Women’s Center – Los Angeles, CA
Volunteer
Education
- Expected in June 2022
California State University – Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA
Master of Social Work Social Work - GPA – 3.7
Coursework include: Equity Studies, Families and Health, Ethnic Relations, Crime and Deviance, Social Stratification, Sociology of Health and Religion, Political Sociology and Gender and Society. - June 2019
California State University – Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA
Bachelor of Arts Social Work - GPA – 3.7
Magna cum laude graduate
Coursework included: Social Inequalities and Institutions, Logic of Social Inquiry, Urban Sociology, Neighborhood and Community and Introduction to Disability Studies.
Important resume sections
Contact details
Including an accurate and up-to-date contact section on your resume is important so hiring managers can contact you for an interview. As our sample resume for an entry-level social worker shows, you should include your full name, city, state and ZIP code, followed by your phone number and email address. Adding a professional website, LinkedIn profile or any other professional networking profile if you have one, is also helpful for hiring managers.
Personal statement
An entry-level social worker professional summary is a three-to-five-sentence statement that tells the hiring manager who you are and what you offer.
This summary should include one or two notable accomplishments and your most relevant and strongest job-relevant skills. You may also include how long you have been in the profession. For example:
Compassionate and motivated social worker with a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree and experience working with clients from diverse backgrounds through internships and volunteer work. Adept at problem-solving, conducting assessments and developing individualized client plans that support and counsel diverse populations. Leverages strong interpersonal and communication skills to build credibility and trust with key stakeholders. Eager to apply both academic knowledge and professional experience to make an impact throughout the community.
If you are applying for your first job or changing careers, consider using a resume objective instead.
Skills
Create an impactful entry-level social worker skills section for your resume to allow hiring managers to see if your capabilities match their needs.
Add your job-relevant skills to a bulleted list, making them easy to scan. It is best to include both hard skills and soft skills, such as assessment and evaluation, data analysis, research and empathy.
If this is your first job as an entry-level social worker, include transferable skills from other employment, such as time management, adaptability and organization.
Work history
Your resume needs to include a work history section, even if this is your first job in the field. Write this section in reverse-chronological order and show any current and previous employers.
For each experience, provide the company name, location and the dates you worked in the role. If you don’t have any work experience, focus on volunteer work, community service and other expertise gained from training.
Include three bullet points of measurable achievements for every job you list. For example:
- Assisted social workers with research and documentation for records review project with 150 individual records, ensuring data was accurately recorded while maintaining accuracy and confidentiality.
- Built credibility and trust with clients through active listening and leveraging interpersonal skills, growing support group by 20% in three months.
- Led research project with five peers to determine the needs of a local, underserved population, resulting in a 5-fold increase in community service offerings.
Education
A resume for an entry-level social worker position must include an education section. Use bullet points to show the school’s name and the graduation year.
Employers will require a Bachelor’s degree in social work for entry-level social worker positions. For an entry-level social worker job, including specific courses or projects in this section can be helpful for employers.
See why MyPerfectResume is a 5-star resume builder
Action verbs for your resume
Use action words and numbers to add impact to your resume.
Here’s a short list of perfect action words for an entry-level social worker resume:
- Assist
- Facilitate
- Coordinate
- Support
- Document
- Evaluate
- Empower
- Improve
- Conduct
- Promote
- Provide
- Enhance
- Intervene
- Assess
- Collaborate
- Analyze
- Research
For more inspiration, check out our 800+ resume examples to help you write the perfect resume for an entry-level social worker job.
Best skills for your resume
Review the job description closely and match the required skills to the ones that fit you. Your entry-level social worker resume skills section should feature skills such as the following:
- Verbal communication
- Active listening
- Empathy
- Problem-solving
- Administration
- Teamwork
- Record keeping
- Report writing
- Counseling
- Case management
- Computer literacy
- Critical thinking
- Cultural sensitivity
- Client evaluation
- Program development
- Crisis intervention
- Advocacy
Need a professional resume now? Our Resume Builder has all the tools you need to create an attention-grabbing resume in minutes! Just fill in a resume template for an entry-level social worker position or any of our other templates that appeal to you. From there, you can edit as you go, download your finished resume and save it in any file format you want. It’s that easy!
Certifications for your resume
In addition to a bachelor’s degree from an accredited program, you might also need a license to practice as a social worker, depending on your state. You can check out the Association of Social Work Boards for more information on regulations by state.
Some employers might also prefer you to have certain certifications, although they’re not usually required.
Either way, a certification on your resume shows you have specialized knowledge and can boost your chances of landing a job. Here are a few options to consider:
- Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC)
- Diplomate in Clinical Social Work (DCSW) Certification
- Certified Social Work Case Managers (C-SWCM)
Pair your resume with a matching cover letter
FAQ
What should a social worker put on a resume?
When applying for a social worker position, it’s important to showcase your fit for the role by highlighting relevant training and education, notable skills specific to social work and experience in the field.
As social workers typically need either a bachelor’s or a master’s degree, you’ll want to feature this prominently, alongside licenses and certifications.
Also include any supervised fieldwork, practicums or internships you’ve completed and how you’ve applied these skills in these contexts to achieve results — if you can communicate these results using numbers, even better.
How do you write an entry-level social worker resume with no experience?
If you are an entry-level social worker without prior experience, you can still create an impressive resume. Here are a few key tips:
- Use a common resume format such as a functional or combination resume to put your relevant skills front and center.
- Start strong with a powerful summary statement that highlights your qualifications, showing your fit for the job despite your limited experience. Take a look at resume summary examples for social workers in entry-level roles to get inspiration. Remember you can also use an entry-level social worker resume objective if you want to shed light on your career goals.
- Add a “Skills” section that organizes your skills into key categories and shows how your competencies and accomplishments qualify you for the position. Remember to include technical and interpersonal skills.
- Highlight relevant experience, even if it isn’t work experience. This could include experience gained through internships, fieldwork, volunteer work, personal projects and extracurricular activities.
- Share your transferable skills such as organization, time management, and communication. These skills are valuable in any setting and are developed through various experiences such as schooling, volunteer work and internships.
- Emphasize your education by featuring academic achievements and relevant coursework.
How much does a social worker earn?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for a social worker is $28.07 per hour or $58,380 per year. You can probably expect to earn a bit less as an entry-level social worker.
Employment in this field is projected to grow by 7% between 2022 and 2032, which is faster than average, meaning there should be plenty of career opportunities. For a better idea of what you could earn, look at entry-level social worker job descriptions.
Best practices
- Use measurable achievements to describe your social work abilities and experience. For example: “Facilitated quality assurance review of 100 client records.”
- Use action words to make an impact on your entry-level social worker resume.
- Tailor your resume to your target entry-level social worker job.
- Use keywords from the job description throughout your entry-level social worker resume.
- Format your resume so that it is easy to read by ATS software and human eyes.
- Lie about your social work experience and skills.
- Boast that you’re the “most compassionate entry-level social worker in the country.” Instead, focus on stating concrete examples of your experience working with clients, maintaining accurate records, and conducting needs assessments.
- Include irrelevant personal information, such as your ethnicity and age.
- Add skills and experience that don’t relate to social work.
- Forget to proofread. An entry-level social worker resume with errors is unprofessional.
Interview tips
Research first.
Before the job interview, take the time to learn about the company’s history, goals, values and people. Showing in-depth knowledge about a potential employer conveys interest, passion and commitment — traits that make a desirable candidate. See our job interview guide for additional tips from career advice experts.
Practice your answers.
Practice is critical. Be sure to practice for your interview by reviewing the most common interview questions, such as:
- What motivates you to do a good job?
- When given an important assignment, how do you approach it?
- How has your college education prepared you for this job?
You might also want to give some thought to a few behavioral interview questions, like:
- Describe a time when you got coworkers or classmates who dislike each other to work together. How did you accomplish this? What was the outcome?
- Give me an example of a time when you took initiative.
- Tell of a time when your active listening skills really paid off for you.
Also, prepare for job-specific questions, including:
- What made you choose a career in social work?
- How do you manage stress to prevent burnout in a demanding work environment?
- Social workers typically have large caseloads. How do you prioritize your tasks when working with many clients simultaneously?
Write down two or three possible answers for each question, then practice answering them with a friend.
Prepare questions to ask during the interview.
At the end of an interview, the interviewer will often allow you to ask them a few questions. Always have at least three questions for each person you speak with during the interview process.
Doing so shows that you’re interested and have been paying close attention. Some questions you might ask for an entry-level social worker job are:
- What are the biggest challenges of this role?
- Can you describe a typical day or week on the job?
- What learning and development opportunities will I have in this role?
- Can you share with me how your team manages large caseloads?
- How do you know if the interventions recommended are successful for your clients?
Gather references.
Have professional references ready before your interview — you never know if the hiring manager might want to contact them immediately.
Ask a former manager (or college supervisor) and two former colleagues who can speak about your performance and who you know will give you an excellent review.
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Entry-Level Social Worker
Toni is a Career Expert who has been providing career advice to professionals for over 16 years. Her areas of expertise include interview prep, salary negotiation, resume writing and career change coaching.
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