Vantaggi
The people here are wonderful. I have met some very kind and down-to-earth coworkers who are committed to doing their job. Although I don't have much job experience in other fields, I'm almost surprised to see the level of devotion that is shown by employees. There is very much a collaborative atmosphere where employees are interested in finding solutions to challeging client situations. People here are very supportive and willing to help.
Svantaggi
Social work is... boring. And tedious. In this company, one would be working with adults with serious, chronic mental illness. They are perhaps one of the most disenfranchised populations in the social work field, which is difficult enough already. The pay is rather miserable, and there is little opportunity for advancement, unless you have a master's degree. Having a counseling degree seems less advantageous than a social work degree, and sometimes, those with MSW are "snooty" about their degree. Get a grip, people. Having such a degree means that you are highly skilled at asking questions and understanding emotions, along with a messy hodge-podge of "knowledge about community resources." It is striking that we entrust such people to perform clinical therapy and revere them at the same level that we would entrust someone with a doctoral degree. Unless you have amazing time management skills that comprise the ability to clone yourself, you will find that there is always work to be done that continues to pile up, often forcing at home work. While employers encourage against this, they also insist on paying for work that is done, and they will acknowledge overtime. However, at the same time, they seem to think that people will get billing, travel time, and all clinical documentation finished within a 40-hour workweek. Not to mention the superfluous administrative time and excessive meetings. I don't think that there is any profession out there that is infatuated with team meetings in the way that this field is.