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.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a director of social services. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.48 an hour? That's $59,241 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 13% and produce 21,900 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many directors of social services have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed managerial skills, time-management skills and analytical skills.
If you're interested in becoming a director of social services, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 62.8% of directors of social services have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 27.0% of directors of social services have master's degrees. Even though most directors of social services have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a director of social services. When we researched the most common majors for a director of social services, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on director of social services resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a director of social services. In fact, many director of social services jobs require experience in a role such as social worker. Meanwhile, many directors of social services also have previous career experience in roles such as case manager or social work internship.