FlightWay / Careers / Social and Human Service Assistants
Social Impact
Social and Human Service Assistants
Assist other social and human service providers in providing client services in a wide variety of fields, such as psychology, rehabilitation, or social work, including support for families.
- Sector: Social Impact
- Preparation: Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed
- O*NET code: 21-1093.00
What you'll actually do
The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.
-
Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
central to the job — rated 94/100 for importance.
-
Documenting/Recording Information
central to the job — rated 88/100 for importance.
-
Getting Information
a major part of the work — rated 82/100 for importance.
-
Performing for or Working Directly with the Public
a major part of the work — rated 77/100 for importance.
-
Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships
a major part of the work — rated 76/100 for importance.
-
Assisting and Caring for Others
a major part of the work — rated 76/100 for importance.
Assist other social and human service providers in providing client services in a wide variety of fields, such as psychology, rehabilitation, or social work, including support for families. May assist clients in identifying and obtaining available benefits and social and community services. May assist social workers with developing, organizing, and conducting programs to prevent and resolve problems relevant to substance abuse, human relationships, rehabilitation, or dependent care.
What it takes
Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.
Skills
-
Social Perceptiveness
Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
-
Speaking
Needed at a solid working level (59/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
-
Active Listening
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
-
Service Orientation
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
-
Reading Comprehension
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Knowledge
-
Customer and Personal Service
Needed at expert level (77/100), and rated 87/100 for importance.
-
Psychology
Needed at a high level (72/100), and rated 82/100 for importance.
-
Therapy and Counseling
Needed at a high level (71/100), and rated 74/100 for importance.
-
English Language
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
Abilities
-
Oral Expression
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 75/100 for importance.
-
Deductive Reasoning
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
-
Oral Comprehension
Needed at a solid working level (57/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
-
Problem Sensitivity
Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 72/100 for importance.
How people get in
O*NET places this occupation in Zone 4 — considerable preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.
Education
A four-year bachelor's degree is the usual entry ticket.
Experience
Two to four years of related work, internships or research on top of the degree.
Training
Most of the learning happens before you are hired, not after.
What it pays
These are typical social impact compensation bands by employer tier — sector-level figures, not a measured salary for Social and Human Service Assistants specifically. Treat them as the shape of the market, then check a real posting for the number.
UN · Gates Fdn · WHO
$90k – $160k
Large NGOs & Government
$60k – $100k
Local Nonprofits
$40k – $70k
How the work tends to run
Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.
- Most of the day happens at a screen.From “Working with Computers”
- You are in front of the public, so the job is partly performance.From “Performing for or Working Directly with the Public”
- Long-running relationships carry the work; the same people come back.From “Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships”
- People depend on you directly, and that is the point of the role.From “Assisting and Caring for Others”
How FlightWay scores your fit against this
No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.
- 1. You answer a short quiz
- Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
- 2. We correlate the two profiles
- Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Social and Human Service Assistants. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
- 3. The number you see is personality fit only
- "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
- 4. Every factor is visible
- You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.
More in Social Impact
See your fit for Social and Human Service Assistants
Ten questions, about 90 seconds. You get your match against Social and Human Service Assistants and 782+ other real careers — with the reasoning shown.
Take the quiz Open in FlightWayOccupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.