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

What is a social work professor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Alex Holte PhD

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a social work professor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $50.3 an hour? That's $104,628 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 159,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a social work professor?

Alex Holte PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychology, Website

My advice for someone new to the field of academia is to learn time management skills early and learn what type of service work you find interesting and would like to contribute to. From there, learn how to say “no” to opportunities that may not align with your goals as well. I feel a lot of new professors tend to find the need to be involved in everything, which can result in burning out later in their career.

ScoreSocial Work ProfessorUS Average

Salary

7.7

Avg. Salary $104,628

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.0

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.28%

Asian 14.37%

Black or African American 6.88%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.78%

White 63.86%

Gender

female 61.67%

male 38.33%

Age - 46

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 - 46

Stress level

5.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.9

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.5

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a social work professor

Explore social work professor education requirements

Most common social work professor degrees

Bachelor's

57.9 %

Master's

29.7 %

Associate

5.5 %

Start to develop specific social work professor skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	52.80%
MSW	20.10%
BSW	10.35%
Mental Health	6.01%
Child Welfare	5.71%

Research social work professor duties and responsibilities

Lead outreach to community and statewide stakeholders in the PPCC entrepreneurship program.
Develop contextually sensitive evidence aggregation methods from patient records that consider whole patients over time, rather than just linguistic correctness.
Conduct educational and help established ADHD groups for parents and teachers.

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