I stared at the time. It was 843pm, and it was Christmas Eve. I wanted to go home, but I was stuck at the hospital, with the client that had just experienced spousal abuse.

Eventually I burned out, and left.

But I never expected myself to knock on the doors of 300 more agencies, attempting to get myself hired. I saw myself interviewing with all manners of agencies, from the usual Family Service Centers, to food banks, to the homes for the homeless.

But yes, I know. You signed up for this. Where there was uncertainty over what days would look like, and where job security wasn’t always there.

When you started your career in the social services, you knew that there would be long days, and days which would require your energy, way beyond what was needed.

But that doesn’t neglect the role of a good agency. Why? Because they bring sustainability to your career.

What you should look for

In my second job as a rehab counselor, I was very frustrated by how the job first tried to negotiate me down like I was in a fish market. Then when I went in, one of my first conversations was around how the career progression would look like. The Head of HR told me,

well, you will first go from level 2 to level 1, and that might take 5 years, and then from level 1 you will go to an assistant manager.

You might want to get promoted fast

That didn’t seem to be promotion based on skill, but rather, it seemed based off the years I’d spent at the job.

After a while, I started twiddling my thumbs, wondering where to go next.

You might face the same. In the social services, many often don’t move after settling into the agency, and they end up sitting there for the next decade, blocking you from being able to actually move up the ranks.

If you want to get promoted, you need to be sure there are spaces for you up top.

But of course, the promotion must be worth the pain.

Because I can guarantee you that you’ll feel pain from the culture within social service agencies.

You might really hate the conservative culture

I once heard it said,

If you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys, and if you pay for more monkeys, you will only get more monkeys.

Don’t get me wrong. I think many in SSAs come with a good heart, but many tend to be quite conservative with how they are doing the work. One of the frustrating things coming in was how un-digital everything seemed.

I’d also just come from the U.K., where I’d seen how community social enterprises like Pulp Friction had managed to build a catering business, getting those with disabilities to cater food in the police stations, or even cycle to juice fruits, and make fruit juice.

So coming back and seeing how most of the work was based in counseling rooms frustrated me, but in the end, I learnt to see how to move change within the agencies.

You might be frustrated, especially when you see how many tend to think small, rather than thinking big.

Here are some that you can really consider.

The Helping Hand for its gumption and desire to try new things

Walk into The Helping Hand, and you might just feel like you’ve stepped back 40 years in time. It’s located on the former site of Xinmin Secondary School, where there are still tin roofs and coverings.

As a halfway house, most residents are sent from Singapore Prisons for drug related offences. The residents work in removals, the kitchen, and places like these to build a healthy work habit.

But over the past few years, they have grown in terms of their work offer to residents.

For one, there has been a tie up with an urban farm, allowing them to offer rehabilitative work within the farm. Another example - they have now grown their own garden, allowing the residents to potter about in the garden, and build something restorative.

If you’ve ideas, this is definitely a good place to be.

When I first joined, I was surprised at how quickly my ideas were taken up and the space I was given to try some of these ideas. For example, running events like a donor appreciation, followed by an insight sharing session by Dr Terry Spokes, was readily accepted and taken up, with no fuss.

Pushing ideas like Search Engine Optimization, and a new website, was further greeted with welcome.

Its new Executive Director, Patrick Ho, was formerly Chief Digital Officer at iFast, a fintech platform that sold financial products digitally. So you can be sure that he understands digital concepts, and will push them to the forefront, quickly.

The Helping Hand for a familial culture, that feels homely

But some of these pushes would be hard to come by without the familial culture that makes for quick understanding. Come to The Helping Hand, and you’d be struck by how much everyone sits together during mealtimes, which are generously provided for by our kitchen.

Breakfast, lunch, dinners are cooked, meaning that you don’t have to worry about going out to find food. You just need to eat in-house, and that’s where many of the good exchanges and updates of ideas come by.

This allows for a quicker feedback loop, allowing for ideas to be refined, and then pushed out.

You might just enjoy the family culture too.

Care Corner for the systematic organizational development

Another place that feels homely and familial is Care Corner. During COVID, in 2021, they came up with a Care Buddy program. This paired colleagues randomly together, allowing them to encourage each other with a small gift of not more than $10.

It’s testament to their HR that they have been so able to push across different transformative projects.

I also previously interviewed with their CEO, Christian Chao, who’s known within the field for being an organizational development guru. He has steadily moved to improve the culture of Care Corner’s teams. For example, under his leadership, Care Corner got a seven million dollar grant from Lien Foundation to set up an innovation team within Care Corner.

You can be sure that in Care Corner, you’d learn quite a lot about shipping innovative work.

South Central FSC for their systemic approach to social work

But beyond just the fancy apps, there’s another charity that’s been making waves over the years. South Central FSC is one of those that are broadly known within the industry for pioneering innovative practices. One of those is the Home Ownership scheme, which aims to break the cycle of those staying in rental flats, and to help them to own their own homes.

This was later developed into a full program under HDB. This is sterling work, because a rental flat can often be situated in a poor ecosystem of negative influences, that would move the next generation into unwanted vices, rather than encouraging them to work hard to break the cycle of poverty.

South Central is great at how they think systematically about problems, rather than just doing surface changes.

Healthserve

Onto more systemic issues, the one around migrant workers is something close to our hearts. Particularly because they work so hard, and often don’t receive enough back in return.

So Healthserve, which provides free healthcare for migrant workers, is one that is useful to work at - because you get to see the wide range of work, from law, to medicine, to housing, to casework.

I’ve seen many who’ve come through the ranks there, and come out better.

Final advice?

But if you really wanted my advice around building a great social service career, I’ll start with this.

1. Find the great boss
2. Find places where you can do many different things
3. Learn when to leave when you’ve learnt all you can

Recognizing when it’s time for another challenge is the hardest thing to do when you’re comfortable, but something you have to do.

Because if you stay stuck, you will never grow.