Navigating Your Field Placement Search as an Online Student
by Brittany Humphrey
Your university assigned you to this placement? You did not have to go through the process of contacting and securing your placement? Your university has a list of potential placements that you can request?
As a fully online Master of Social Work student, these are the questions I asked while working with fellow students from a nearby university at my initial placement. Online social work education provides a flexible option for coursework that is desirable for many students with other commitments. However, I have found that navigating and securing a field placement on your own can be difficult. (Editor’s Note: The process of choosing a field placement and the amount of assistance provided to students will vary from school to school, whether online or on-campus.)
So, how exactly do you go about securing your field placement? Your university may provide you with some basic guidelines to follow. Despite these tips, I discovered that this process was far more arduous than I initially believed. After countless hours of Google searches and more than 30 emails (many of which went unanswered), I secured a placement that did not offer my desired experience. Considering the lack of availability of MSW-credentialed social workers in my area, I committed to this placement out of necessity. While I actively sought out desirable objectives that fulfilled my interests, I was eager to take every step to ensure my possibility of securing a more fulfilling placement the next time around. Here are the steps I incorporated in my search to obtain my desired experience at my second field placement.
1. Spend some time brainstorming.
Take a thorough look at the learning contract requirements and try to tailor the contract to fit your needs. The learning contract provides an excellent basis for the overarching experiences you are expected to have in your placement, but keep in mind that this placement is for you to get the experience that you need to grow as a social worker, and that some of these expectations are adjustable. Outline what experiences you want to get out of the field placement. Think about the things that excite you, as well as those that do not. This step will help you find what you value in a social work placement.
2. Be creative with your search.
Try not to limit yourself to roles that you believe are typical of social workers, but rather use this as a time to explore the roles you could see yourself working in, even if they do not have social workers in them. Although the barrier of finding a field instructor with a BSW/MSW may be difficult to overcome when searching for placements in less prominent social work roles, do not let this deter you from trying. Use the information you have gathered from your brainstorming session and search for some possible job descriptions that you believe fit your requirements.
Doing so will allow you to get an idea of some of the duties and responsibilities you may be exposed to within a particular placement and open your eyes to prospective placements you had not considered.
3. Be patient and persistent during your search.
Unfortunately, you will probably send dozens of unanswered emails and make many unreturned phone calls. Do not be afraid to send a follow-up email, and try not to let this get you down. Rather, try to let this be a lesson for learning social work values and ethics. Explore how you would go about this process if you were on the side of a prospective field instructor.
4. Contact more than one person at a potential placement.
My initial plan focused on reaching out to either a director or human resource manager, because I felt that they had the final say when agreeing to have a student complete a practicum at their agency. I often realized that my initial contact would forward my email to other potential supervisors. To simplify this process, I began including additional employees who I would be interested in working with in my initial emails.
5. Utilize various resources for your online search.
Use jobs websites, and try searching for terms such as BSW/MSW, social work, social justice, social welfare, and so on. Use Google to search for similar terms with your location. If your town has a university, scroll through its social work, psychology, political science, or sociology pages to see if they are affiliated with internships or volunteer partners. If you feel comfortable doing so, reach out to someone from one of these departments and ask for options; they may be aware of some agencies that you have not considered. Check websites such as Business Finder or your local chamber of commerce website for organizations and businesses that may not come up in other searches. I was surprised to find out how many options were not listed elsewhere once I started using this method.
6. Be flexible.
Coming from a rural area, I have had the luxury of driving less than 10 minutes to virtually any local destination my entire life. Considering this, I became unusually stressed when I had to drive 45 miles to my field placement three times a week. I knew this would be a difficult transition, but as a determined MSW student, I invested in a coffee travel mug and went for it. It may not be ideal, but at least be open to considering traveling a further distance if it will benefit you.
7. Ask for help.
If you are having trouble or just need to clarify something, give your university a call. During my search, I found a few ideal placements that did not have an employee with an MSW. I didn’t want to rule them out, so I contacted the social work department at my university. By reaching out to an online field specialist and field liaison, I discovered that it was possible to consider these options as placements, as long as I could locate an MSW at another organization in the area who could supervise me.
8. Meet with your potential placement.
Most meetings with a potential placement end up feeling like a job interview. This is helpful for the placement when getting to know you; it may be less helpful for you. My advice is similar to that for job interview prep. Go in with a list of questions, and I mean a literal list that you have thought through prior to your meeting. It may be helpful to ask obvious questions, such as, “What does a typical day look like in this role?” It would also be helpful to ask more specific questions, such as “Has your organization had interns before, and if so, what are some of the things they typically do?” If they do have interns, and current interns would be willing, it may be worth asking to speak with them about their experience to ensure it aligns with your desires. Although this may be specific, you could ask how the agency handles quality assurance or what they do to promote self-care for employees. These may not be questions that make or break your decision, but they can help you get a feel for how the agency values employees and their dedication to doing quality work. Just think about what professional and personal values are important to you and your experience and frame them into questions.
9. Finish your paperwork sooner rather than later.
So, you have made your decision, and it is time to wrap up any loose ends. Your university will provide you with the documents that both you and your field instructor will need to complete. It is a good idea to take copies of the paperwork with you during your meeting to assure the agency can agree to all terms. As you will have to email or fax the paperwork, this can take more time than you might imagine, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time. Once you have completed the initial paperwork, your university should take over contact with the agency and complete additional documents. Contact your university and confirm that you have completed everything on your end and that they have begun their side of documentation.
10. Be proud.
This process can be extremely time-consuming and test many skills that are vital to a career as a social worker. Be mindful, and savor the experience. Acknowledge all the work you have put into this process, and keep this mindset while doing your practicum to assure you are getting the most out of your experience.
Good luck!
Brittany Humphrey is a Master of Social Work student at Arizona State University.