Social work is a calling as well as a profession. I hear teachers, nurses, and of course ministers and priests talking about their work as "a calling," something they do because they are impelled to do it and feel that they must do it to be complete, to live the life they need to live and to just do what they must do. I sometimes hear social workers talking that way, and I like it. A lot of people will tell you that is naive: that there is no sense to be talking about being "called" to a profession like social work, but I think there is a great deal of sense to it. We certainly know that most social workers are not paid what they are worth, what their training and hard work should reward them with. So if we don't do social work for the money, why do we do it? Because at least to some extent, for many of us, it is a calling.
We may be called to the profession, but it is rare indeed for the calling to include instructions in how to do it well. We may be called, but we still have to learn how to be the best professional helpers we can be. Education and competence are even more important when people are responsible to help change the lives of other people and working with a great deal of emotional involvement in their jobs and their clients. When social workers mess up, it is not just that someone loses money or receives the wrong order. When social workers mess up, human beings are hurt: they lose an opportunity to grow or to change their lives. Social workers need professional training. "Anybody can do it" if "doing it" means messing with the lives of people, but only people who are trained and who take their professional training seriously can do it well. When we mess with the lives of people we should do it well.
So social work students should take their education seriously. Classes and field instruction provide the opportunity to learn how other people do things right and, unfortunately too often, include seeing things being done wrong. Learn from bad examples as well as the good. Learn from your own mistakes as well as those of others. This work is too hard for anyone to do it perfectly. It is inevitable that you will make mistakes, but they will be far less significant than your successes if you remain committed to improvement. Remember that your education is a lifelong process; it does not stop when you get your B.S.W., M.S.W., or Ph.D. As you practice, continue to learn: read about new ideas; continue to find and use good supervision and consultation; continue to answer your calling with growing competence. You will know that you were called to the right profession if you grow enough to love what you are doing and are loving to those around you.