Social Worker resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 17 skills, tools and credentials that come up in social worker job posts, sorted by type, and how to put them in bullets a recruiter believes.
By Nazir Elmurodov, Founder, LaunchCV · Updated
/ The list
Keywords by type. Use only the ones that are true for you.
Hard skills · 12
- Psychosocial assessment (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Discharge planning (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Case management (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Care coordination (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Crisis intervention (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Safety planning (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Trauma-informed (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Community resources (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Home visits (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Mandated reporter (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Medicaid (used in Angela's sample resume)
- Documentation (used in Angela's sample resume)
Tools & software · 1
- Epic (used in Angela's sample resume)
Licenses & certifications · 3
- MSW (used in Angela's sample resume)
- LMSW (used in Angela's sample resume)
- ASWB (used in Angela's sample resume)
Soft skills · 1
- Motivational interviewing (used in Angela's sample resume)
17 of 17 appear in Angela's sample resume. See where
/ How to use them
Put keywords in bullets, not just in a skills list.
A skills list tells the software you have a skill. A bullet shows a recruiter what you did with it.
Medicaid
Weak: Skills: Medicaid
Strong: Arrange discharges to skilled nursing, home health, hospice and shelters, and help patients apply for Medicaid and community benefits
Crisis intervention, Safety planning, Mandated reporter
Weak: Skills: Crisis intervention, Safety planning, Mandated reporter
Strong: Provide crisis intervention and safety planning for patients disclosing intimate partner violence, and file reports as a mandated reporter when required
Case management
Weak: Skills: Case management
Strong: Started a weekly huddle with case management for patients without a safe discharge plan; average days from referral to placement on my units fell from 6 to 4
Case management, Care coordination
Weak: Skills: Case management, Care coordination
Strong: Provided case management and care coordination for 30 families with children at risk of out-of-home placement
Strong bullets come from Angela's sample resume and our social worker bullet examples. Names and figures are illustrative.
/ Use them honestly
Keywords get you found. Proof gets you hired.
Mirror the job post's wording for skills you really have. If a social worker post asks for Psychosocial assessment and you've used it, say Psychosocial assessment, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If a social worker post says "Discharge planning", write "Discharge planning", not a near-synonym — as long as it's accurate. Recruiters search for the post's exact term.
Only claim what you can back up
Expect to be asked about every term you list. If you couldn't spend two minutes on Psychosocial assessment — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know Medicaid. A bullet like the one under Medical Social Worker in the example above shows what you did with it.
No stuffing, no hidden text
Repeating a word or hiding keywords in white text doesn't make you a better match. A person reads the resume in the end.
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/ Questions
Social Worker keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should a social worker resume have?
There's no magic number. Angela's sample resume uses all 17 terms on this page, because each one fit that job. Cover what your post asks for that you can back up, each where it fits; repeating a keyword doesn't help.
Should I copy keywords exactly from the job post?
Use the post's wording for skills you really have. If a social worker post says "Psychosocial assessment", write "Psychosocial assessment" rather than a synonym, so a recruiter searching for that term finds you. Don't add skills you don't have just because the post lists them.
Where should keywords go on my resume?
In your summary, a short skills section and, above all, the bullets under each job, where you show what you did with the skill. In Angela's sample, Medicaid shows up in a bullet under Medical Social Worker. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on a social worker resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in social worker posts include Epic. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list MSW and LMSW on my resume?
Spell them the way the job post does, and include both the abbreviation and the full name if you have room. Put licenses and certifications in their own section or next to your education, and only list ones that are current.
Keywords for related roles
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