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

What is a social work administrator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Expert

Debra Minsky-Kelly

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a social work administrator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.08 an hour? That's $58,404 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 64,000 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a Social Work Administrator?

Debra Minsky-Kelly

Director of Field Education / Clinical Assistant Professor of Social Work, Carthage College

I think there are two critical skills for social workers, whether they are first entering the workforce or seasoned professionals. These skills are humility and an appreciation for ambiguity in our work. A humble approach to our work empowers clients to become experts on their circumstances. Social workers are then positioned in a collaborative role to help clients use existing skills and resources to improve their situations. An appreciation for ambiguity is closely related to the idea of humility. It helps us to remember that practice situations we face in this field are often far more complicated than they appear on the surface. Thus, all social workers need to make a strong commitment to lifelong learning and ongoing consultation with colleagues to ensure that multiple perspectives are included as we work to solve complex problems.

ScoreSocial Work AdministratorUS Average

Salary

4.6

Avg. Salary $58,404

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

10.0

Growth Rate 9%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.51%

Asian 2.67%

Black or African American 13.37%

Hispanic or Latino 15.12%

Unknown 4.19%

White 63.14%

Gender

female 70.95%

male 29.05%

Age - 42

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 - 42

Stress Level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.5

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

6.2

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a social work administrator

Explore social work administrator education requirements

Most common social work administrator degrees

Bachelor's

51.0 %

Master's

15.4 %

Associate

14.6 %

Start to develop specific social work administrator skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	32.88%
Patients	18.79%
Mental Health	11.37%
Community Resources	4.88%
Social Services	4.07%

Complete relevant social work administrator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New social work administrators 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 social work administrator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real social work administrator resumes.

Research social work administrator duties and responsibilities

Collaborate with partners including public and private agencies to achieve permanency for children.
Have worked with private insurances as well Medicare, Medicaid and all Medicaid HMO's.
Advise hundreds of disable, retire, and transitioning veterans about VA, disability, education, and state benefits.
Provide therapeutic interventions for veterans and their families.

Prepare your social work administrator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your social work administrator 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 social work administrator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Social Work Administrator Resume templates

Build a professional Social Work Administrator 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 Social Work Administrator resume.

Apply for social work administrator jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a social work administrator job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do social work administrators rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

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2 Stars

1 Star

Social Work Administrator reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2022

Cons

Getting approval and watching families go through their proceed with difficulties

A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019

Cons

Sometimes you can't help everyone, or the people you do help have tragic & heartbreaking stories. Being exposed to this every day can definitely be draining, so you definitely need an outlet to blow off steam.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2019

Pros

Working with people, making people happy and feel cared for