SOCIOLOGY

Sociology: Social Work Field Class

Part 1

Three Things I Learned From the Podcast

The first thing I learned from the podcast is that having strong communication skills for negotiation is important. Companies these days are looking for strong communicators, be it any field or even social work. Businesses are highly dependent on such good facilitators. Great communication skills are evident from the negotiation skills of a prospective employee who knows his worth and can talk about money, which is a difficult subject. There is another aspect related to communication taking place in negotiation. People who are good at it can tackle difficult topics intelligently and have a problem-solving capability reflected in their negotiation. This would be considered a passing feature for an interview where the employer might be subtly judging this characteristic. Taking initiate and delivering messages with creative answers is a plus point for any new hire.

The second thing that I learned from the podcast is that the person must be knowledgeable about negotiation, which was salary in the given podcast. They must be fully aware of the information they would have at hand so that their strong position with comprehensive information helps them get what they want. Research is the key in this aspect (Arendt, 2015).

The third thing that I learned is that one does not have to be assertive to get what he wants. He would have to make a win-win situation for both the employer and himself, for which he would have to let go of some of his desired or expected components of the entire demand for a salary. For example, if he has thought of being hired at $30,000 and the employer is willing to pay him $25,000 only and not a penny more. He would either have to go somewhat down in his demand or think of an added value that the company wants or seeks in his employees to prove favorable for its clients; for example, the podcast mentioned Spanish speaking skills.

What Surprised and Impressed Me

One thing that surprised me in the podcast was that during the research about the company, one has to research the facilities one can buy within the companys pay. For example, researching how much I have to pay for the car or house rent and whether that would be affordable at the companys pay rate. Initially, I thought that I would only have to look onto the Internet about the market pay rate of a specific position that I have to apply for so that I could demand a fair rate from the employer in my interview. I was unaware that I would have to search for each item that I would afford from that specific salary rate that the company would offer and even know about my competitors at the same position.

Another thing that impressed me is related to the same topic that I have talked about here. A well-equipped person with thorough information about the position he is applying for would display himself as a self-confident and valuable person the organization is hiring. For instance, if the employee has additional skills that would help long-term client retention, like mitigating food allergies for school children for whom the social workers are supporting in various ways, the social workers knowledge regarding food allergies would be valuable. It would make him self-confident while negotiating for the salary, even in front of the companys Executive Director, an exhibition of self-assurance and poise in the social workers respective field.

Discussion of Two Concepts that were Reinforced

The two concepts reinforced are communication in which not only speaking but listening comes for giving a good, well-thought-out reply and convincing with appropriate skills for which not letting the employer know that you are being repetitive about your anticipated salary but still being able to convey your message.

It is evident from the podcast that negotiation is not about shouting and keeping your pint at the table in front of the employer. It is about exchanging ideas and thoughts with each other so that both...…the perception and value of this endeavor to them, assessing the alignment of intervention with the detected needs, assessing any racial or ethnic disparities, enduring the needs fir with the community and federal priorities, and making calculations about the capacity of the organizations who should have financial and cultural resources for the intervention (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2018, p. 8).

Agency Policies, Procedures and Behavioral Norms that I Have Noticed Tending To Undermine and Discourage Social Work Professionalism within My Field Practicum

Some of the behavioral norms in the outer world that I noticed towards youth aging out of foster homes as social workers like me working for them to get better employment opportunities was their reluctance in hiring them at good posts or even hiring them at all. I tried to convince a school principal, for example, about the young girl who was interested in teaching and had good knowledge of geography; however, she kept reiterating the fact that she does not have experience and might not be able to fulfill the district standards of the teachers such as cultural competency for addressing the diversity in that school. This behavior was seen consistently in the other two neighboring schools as well. I added on to convince them to have her as an intern for a month or two so that she could be trained; they did not respond positively to it.

Research had fairly corroborated that the social service organizations partially achieve the economic independence of these youth and success planning for heir employees due to lack of implementation of the policies (Doucet, 2018, p. 12). I realized that the system approach could not change these youth since changing their attitudes and behaviors is hard; instead, I prefer to teach the youth to influence their views towards self-sufficiency, moving youth out of child care and foster homes.

Organizations to Join For Professional Development as a Social Worker

I believe I can join Child Protection Services (CPS), American Youth Policy Forum, Forum for Youth Investment, Foster Care to Success, and…