where are the licensing requirements, where are the credentials??? this scares me, anyone with the equivalent!!! anyway, going into clients homes, usually requires a police escort, and that in itself can become scary. I have done most of what you are about to do and I would be concerned about the work load because clearly they are not paying enought for licensed, credentialed , human service workers. IF you really need a job go for it, but I suspect that you are going to be incredibly stessed and overworked and completely underpaid.
it concerns me too because this type of job in the county i worked for required at bare minimum a full msw and licensing.
i'm wondering if this position is similar to one the county i worked for created as a cost saving measure. they basicly took allot of the clerical and administrative duties of the child welfare social work staff and bundled them together to create a kind of 'assistant' who was assigned to units of workers. the msw's did the nuts and bolts of the cases and would use the assistants as support to do the physical case documentation, data input, and preparation of reports and legal documents. this was later expanded to have the assistants do the shuttling of foster care kids to placements and appointments. it was rare that they ever were called on to actualy testify but it could be if they were involved in communicating information between the sw and the parents (like sending them multiple letters and communicating by phone repeated times a requirement for them to provide verification of something that they subsequently fail to do).
as for the involuntary removal of children-since it required that a person was violating the law (child welfare law re. neglect, abuse or endangerment) the police were always called in.
op-i'de suggest if possible you pull up the child welfare laws for your state. if you are familiar with reading law it could give you a feel for who is authorized to do what in your state and what kind of limitations someone in the kind of position you are interviewing for will have. this way you can speak to having some knowledge about knowing the importance of how your work actions will impact others.
since you have law training i think it would valuable to point out how you know the importance of keeping accurate and detailed records and case documentation since it becomes the legal record and can greatly impact the disposition of a child and families within the child welfare system.
since they will be giving training you can speak of your expeirences in a learning environment and weather you can quickly assimilate and disseminate information, AND how you can create and maintain resources for yourself (the laws and procedures are in a constant state of change so dss agencies will often train their staff that they can never entirely 'learn' everything, but have to learn how to access the appropriate information and resources).
talk about communication skills you have. we had laws on the books in the state i worked in that said all written communication had to be done at a certain educational level-and i'm not talking a high level. staff had to be able to take technical terms and make them (for lack of a better term) more 'user friendly' (think about taking the irs tax code and explaining it in an understandable way either in writing or verbaly to a junior highschool student). it was'nt about talking 'down' to anyone, it's just that in that state they were very aware of the average educational experience and comprehension levels of the clients they served so they wanted staff that could kind of assess what the comprehension level was and communicate appropriatly.
i'll pass on 3 questions that we incorporated in some form for all staff who had front line client contact-
1. you come into work and your clerk tells you a client dropped in and is in the waiting room, you have 4 phone messages, and a client is waiting on hold. you also have a message that your supervisor wants to see you. what do you do?
(the key to this one is seeing how someone prioritizes and if they reccognize that the first priority is speaking to their supervisor if only to touch bases and find out if they need to speak with them before they see/speak to any clients. reason being is the supervisor could have information that could impact any of the contact with the clients).
2. your client requests a service/procedure/resource that your agency legaly provides but you have a personal, moral or ethical belief against (often in the interview it would be worded where it was a minor and it involved an abortion) what do you do?
(key to this one is to see if candidate reccognizes that they have to put their own personal opinions and beliefs aside and administer the programs in accordance with the law).
3. (this one seems stupid but it was very popular)-when you arrive at the interview you sign in and are told by the secretary or whomever greets you that the job description is posted (and they point to it tacked to the wall or taped onto a desk)-you are told to review it and then take a seat to wait for your interview.
(key to this-READ the whole freaking job description even if you've already read it a hundred times because in the course of the interview there will be a question that asks for some kind of information from that sheet of paper. it might be for you to recite the job duties or tell them what the educational requirements/substitutions are. it might be to tell them what the salary range is. this question is specifically done to see if an applicant can follow instructions-and often that they can follow instructions from a person that they may presume that they will, if hired- hold a higher ranking position than).
good luck with your interview you may find out that there are other opportunites within dss that you realy enjoy and can use your education with-i had coworkers who had their law degrees and went into doing program analysis, appeals and fair hearings administration as well as hiring into the legal part of the house (we had special counsel on staff who because they had experience in child welfare they tremendous assetts to both staff and the public we served).
