Mindy First Job Interview

On August 28, 2016, I interviewed Mindy Saalfeld. This interview was done via email. Mindy graduated from Kearney State College in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science in Social Work and minor in Sociology. She was then required to take a Merit Test within 180 days of graduation. In order to obtain certification, you had to do so by becoming an accepted member of the NSWA. Once a member, you were required to complete continuing education hours to retain your certification every 2 years. She continued to do this until she decided to no longer representing herself as a BSW-C. Mindy’s work setting and years of experience varied and were very interesting to me. Her first job experience out of college was actually as an Activity Director at St. Luke 's Good Samaritan Village in Kearney, NE. When the Director of Social Services position at St. Luke 's became available, she then moved into that position, which she said that she absolutely loved. Her responsibilities were numerous. They included pre-assessment of nursing home admissions, resident advocate, care planning, private payment versus medicaid payment, liaison between the departments, hospital discharge planner, Nebraska Department of Social Services case managers, the resident and their families. In September 1987, she began working for Community Hospital-McCook as the Director of Social Services and remained at that hospital until April, 1997. She said “this was a wonderful opportunity for me as I worked with a vast array of people and I learned so much professionally and personally”. She also informed me how exciting Hospital Social Work was. You are working with the Doctors, Nurse 's, Ancillary Staff, the patient and their families, outside sources, general public and so forth. Every day is different as you never knew if you are going to be working on a challenging discharge plan for a patient, or working with a family due to a trauma involving their loved one or sitting with a family and helping them work through a difficult decision. Then, in June 1997, she began working with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a Child Protective Services Worker. Mindy’s job was to do Child Abuse and Neglect Investigations. Her job responsibilities included writing case plans, child/family crisis intervention, reunification plans, working with the families, children, law enforcement and the judicial system in the best interest of the child. In April of 2005, she began working as a Monument Counselor/Sales which essentially means she works with people and guiding them in the selection of a …show more content…
She said “I really didn 't choose this field, I always say that it chose me!” She actually went to Kearney State College with the dream of becoming a High School English Teacher with a Physical Education/coaching endorsement. But she found the classes to be too challenging for her. So she decided she just wanted to take easier classes. This led her to take a Social Work class called "Ethics in Minorities”. Funny thing is, she didn’t really want to be in this class, she just needed to take it and thought it was an easy class. But she fell in love with the class and everything that social work involves. From after that class on she knew that she wanted to go into Social Work. She said “This was the turning point in my decision to become a Social Worker. I continued to complete my general studies requirements interspersed with Social Work