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

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

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

As a director of social work, you'll have the opportunity to have a crucial impact on people. Your job will at times be difficult, but very rewarding. That's because you'll get to help people with a wide variety of problems and needs. Directors of social work can have a range of duties, but typically they are in charge of the social work department at a facility or community-based agency. Some of their typical duties include hiring and managing staff, identify funding opportunities, coordinating fund-raising efforts, and writing grants to obtain funds.

They are also frequently expected to run the day-to-day operations of the agency or program. Consequently, they often work with people who are in distress or who are experiencing a mental health crisis. Therefore, if you choose this type of work, you'll need to be flexible, adaptable, and able to handle difficult and stressful situations calmly and rationally.

In order to get into this line of work, you'll need to typically have first obtained a degree in social work or related field. You'll then need to earn your license in social work and complete several years of hands-on experience.

ScoreDirector Of Social WorkUS Average

Salary

5.1

Avg. Salary $65,174

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.7

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.88%

Asian 5.07%

Black or African American 12.79%

Hispanic or Latino 13.92%

Unknown 5.34%

White 61.99%

Gender

female 79.77%

male 20.23%

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 work

Explore director of social work education requirements

Most common director of social work degrees

Bachelor's

55.5 %

Master's

36.0 %

Associate

5.8 %

Start to develop specific director of social work skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	31.93%
Patients	10.20%
Rehabilitation	5.86%
Discharge Planning	5.81%
MSW	4.27%

Complete relevant director of social work training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New directors of social work 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 work based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real director of social work resumes.

Research director of social work duties and responsibilities

Manage projects and ambulatory system initiatives, and collaborate with system leadership teams to ensure EMR alignment with all regulatory requirements.
Discharge planning to home, acute rehabilitation hospitals and diagnosis specific residential facilities.
Work on the sub-acute rehabilitation unit and coordinating discharge planning in a fast pace environment.
Maintain update knowledge of current regulations governing Medicare/ Medicaid and private insurance company reimbursement processes.

Get director of social work experience

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

Prepare your director of social work resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your director of social work 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 work 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 work resume templates

Build a professional director of social work 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 work resume.