How To Become A Director Of Social Services: What It Is and Career Path

What is a director of social services and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A director of social services oversees a social services department in an organization. They curate programs that cater to the needs of people with specific challenges, especially the elderly, homeless people or children, and victims of abuse. These programs might be community outreaches to enlighten the public about their services or actual programs catering to their needs. As a social services director, you must decide what kind of programs benefit the community and determine the eligibility criteria for people who need assistance. You will also be responsible for supervising the staff, hiring and training recruits. It's also important that you monitor the budget and can send proposals to call for additional funds.

Highly rated skills for any social services director are treatment plans, patient care, mental health, hospice, leadership, communication, and team-building skills. You will make an average of $30.32 an hour, which amounts to $63,076 annually. The most commonly required educational qualification is a bachelor's degree in social work, psychology, sociology, or a related field.

ScoreDirector Of Social ServicesUS Average

Salary

4.4

Avg. Salary $56,932

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.7

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.88%

Asian 5.11%

Black or African American 11.50%

Hispanic or Latino 14.14%

Unknown 5.24%

White 63.13%

Gender

female 84.31%

male 15.69%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

9.7

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.0

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a director of social services

Explore director of social services education requirements

Most common director of social services degrees

Bachelor's

62.8 %

Master's

27.0 %

Associate

6.8 %

Start to develop specific director of social services skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	21.43%
Patients	10.20%
Discharge Planning	7.00%
Mental Health	4.64%
Rehabilitation	3.60%

Complete relevant director of social services training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New directors of social services learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a director of social services based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real director of social services resumes.

Research director of social services duties and responsibilities

Transform CRM system from measuring activities to managing business pipeline.
Facilitate weekly or bi-weekly care meeting between patients, family members and staff to discuss physical progress and recommendations post rehabilitation.
Provide educations for families and resident on available community assistance, hospice services, insurance benefits, Medicare and Medicaid education.
Maintain WordPress articles using SEO, article tags, and categories.

Get director of social services experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a director of social services. The most common roles before becoming a director of social services include social worker, case manager team lead and social work internship.

Prepare your director of social services resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your director of social services resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a director of social services resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable director of social services resume templates

Build a professional director of social services resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your director of social services resume.