What's it like being a 73A in the military?

I'm considering becoming a social worker in the military, specifically interested in the 73A role. What exactly does this job entail? Are there particular skills or experiences that are beneficial for this position?

As a 73A, or Social Work Officer in the U.S. Army, your responsibilities would revolve around assisting military personnel and their families in various ways. This might include providing counselling, crisis intervention, conducting assessments, and even military-specific tasks like handling substance abuse prevention and management.

A key aspect of the 73A role is to tackle military-focused problems, such as dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or issues related to deployments and relocations. You may work directly with service members, identifying resources and developing plans to help them cope with mental health concerns, family problems, and various life stressors.

Key skills for a 73A role include strong communication capability (both verbal and written) and an ability to deal with high-stress, dynamic, and often unstable environments. Military social workers often have to deal with a wide range of challenging situations, so resilience, flexibility, and resourcefulness are also important.

For prior experiences, gaining some form of practice or exposure in social work-related settings can prove beneficial. This would equip you with a working knowledge of various social work methodologies and therapeutic techniques. Naturally, if you're more interested in the specifics of the 73A role in relation to military mental health, internships or experiences within a similar domain would be a considerable asset.

Overall, the road to becoming a military social worker is a challenging one, but can be rewarding if you have a passion for serving the military community. If you are more interested in the specifics of the 73A role or other ways to be a social worker in the military, I would recommend speaking with an Army recruiter, as they would have the most accurate and current information on this subject.