Freedman, Ethan 9/30/25 Columbia University School for Social Work, New York Submitted in partial fulfillment as Job Description Assignment within the requirements for Columbia's School for Social Work program and Prof. Desiree Bunch's Human Resource Management class.
Acknowledgements
I would also like to acknowledge Professor Prof. Desiree Bunch and their facilitation of SOCWT7123. With Prof. Bunch's lecturers, recommended readings, and my additional thoughts – this piece took form. Moreover, all my peers in class who contributed to discussions and building ideas that related to the present topic. With these acknowledgements, I present my following work.
Part 1: Job Description: Graduate Student Researcher or Social Work Intern at SIG
Job Title: Graduate Student Researcher / Social Work Intern
Organization: Social Intervention Group (SIG), Columbia University School of Social Work (CSSW)
SIG: Organization Description
By joining The Social Intervention Group (SIG), located within the Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW) and Columbia University institutional network, you become a part of an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to advancing interventions rooted in evidence backed practice that address topics around HIV/AIDS, substance use, gender based violence, and other social and public health initiatives. Since 1990, SIG has conducted pioneering research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), international federations, and major organizations to combine social work, public health, medicine, and technology in effort to address systemic inequalities locally and globally. SIG's work combines interdisciplinary teams of social workers, public health professionals and practitioners, and community partners to improve outcomes for marginalized populations.
Why Join Social Intervention Group (SIG) at Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW)
As an internationally recognized academic hub, Columbia University and the academic institutions that extend under its name (including CSSW), fosters rigorous research, professional development, and systemic impact. SIG offers students, researchers, and practitioners the opportunity to participate actively and dynamically in ground breaking studies funded by the National Institute of Health and other major organizations, while engaging directly with communities to bridge micro and macro contexts.
Position Summary: What is the Role of a Social Work Graduate Research Student Intern at SIG?
The Graduate Research Student (or Social Work Intern) supports SIG's values, vision, and mission by contributing to research projects, program evaluation, and dissemination of interventions. As Graduate Intern, one plays a critical role in advancing SIG's research and community partnerships by assisting with project design, literature reviews, data management, stakeholder engagement, and applied practice within Columbia University's MSW practicum concentrations. Whether concentrating in Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP), Policy Practice (PP), Integrated Practice and Programming (IPP), or Leadership, Management, and Entrepreneurship (LME), the Social Work Graduate Research Student Intern is a pivotal representative and ambassador for Social Intervention Group and its initiatives within and outside of Columbia University. While SIG is interested in interns with backgrounds in all concentrations, the responsibilities of this role revolve around leadership and management topics capable of being utilized by any agent no matter their disciplinary specialty.
What Responsibilities are Specific to the Graduate Student Research Intern at SIG?
- Intern will conduct weekly communications and outreach with SIG staff, project leads, community partners, and stakeholders to understand organizational structures, funding streams, and program management
- Assist with strategic planning and program development across advocacy, community research, and intervention projects.
- Projects are on Social Intervention Groups website and may include
- P3 (HIV intervention research)
- PrEP for Wings (study supporting women in the legal system at risk for HIV and IPV)
- Uzbekistan Columbia Center (global partnerships with UNICEF and NASP)
- Isms and Disability Justice Lab (addressing stigma, oppression and disability justice)
- GAyI - AI with a Queer Eye (examining the role of AI in LGBTQ+ wellbeing and ethics
- Tech M Power and HEAL (AI for social good initiatives)
- Supply Side of Harm Reduction (Community engaged harm reduction)
- Draft or refine internal processes and practices to strengthen SIG's organizational and research capacity.
- Support grant writing, IRB submissions, and ethical compliance related to Human Subjects Research, HIPAA, and Good Clinical Practice.
- Facilitate and observe interdisciplinary team meetings, applying leadership and management strategies to real time projects
- Contribute to dissemination activities and materials, including presentations, outreach initiatives and stakeholder engagement.
Position Qualifications
- Basic Qualifications: Enrollment in Columbia University's Master of Social Work Program. Any concentration qualifies, but education plans established look different per specification (ACP, PP, IPP, LME)
- Enrollment in Columbia University's network of colleges as a graduate student with a valid CUID.
Skills Preferred for the Role as SIG Social Work Intern
- Strong academic background or motivation to pursue topics in social work, psychology, public health, or related fields.
- Familiarity or willingness to complete qualitative and quantitative research methods education, CITI certification, or continued education credits related to SIG and evolving research practices
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Google Workspace; familiarity with NVivo, SPSS, or R is preferred.
- Strong interpersonal and organizational skills with attention to detail
- Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice.
Competencies Needed for SIG Graduate Student Researcher
- Research Competence: Ability to conduct literature reviews, support data collection/analysis, and prepare research deliverables in alignment with Columbia University IRB standards
- Concentration Related Awareness: Capacity to apply frameworks from within your concentrations:
- Advanced Clinical Awareness:
- Policy Practice Awareness:
- Integrated Practice and Programming:
- Leadership and Management Awareness: Capacity to apply frameworks of leadership and management
- Public Health
- Psychology
- Social Work
- Analogous concentrations
- Interdisciplinary collaborations: The initiative to work across public health, social work, behavioral science, technology fields, and more to advance SIG research and best practice interventions for health.
- Communications and Outreach: Strong ability or desire to learn to engage stakeholders, facilitate discussions, and translate research into accessible language for the populations they serve.
- Ethical and Cultural Competence: Understanding or drive to learn about confidentiality, HIPAA, and IRB practices alongside the ability to practice inclusivity and cultural humility in diverse settings.
- Technology: Familiarity or strong desire to learn about emerging technologies in research (AI in social work, digital interventions)
- Adaptability and problem solving: Flexibility to respond to evolving research priorities, stakeholder needs, and organizational challenges.
- Willingness, Desire, and Patience to work in SIG related initiatives: Social work and research in public health are disciplines that take lots of energy. A strong candidate possesses the motivation to balance the work they do with their own health and wellbeing.
Additional Information for the Role at SIG
- Length of Hire: Academic Year (Fall, 2025 - Spring, 2026)
- Schedule: Hybrid (In Person and Remote).
- The Graduate Student Intern will be working approximately 21 hours per week, 300 hours per semester. They will also partake in task, group, and individual supervision with faculty supervisor and project leads.
- Professional Development
- Interns will engage in structured supervision, process recordings, and reflexive journaling to build a concentration related roadmap. Opportunities exist to link practicum tasks to future research initiatives or Ph.D. work.
- Opportunities for a promotion beyond practicum intern vary depending on the academic term, funding, and the performance of the Graduate Student Intern, as well as Ph.D. students and vacancies within SIG. Please connect with your supervisor upon hiring to hear about promotional opportunities within SIG
Compensation and benefits with SIG as Graduate Student Researcher or Intern
- CSSW Course credit for the following courses related to practicum:
- Specialized Social Work Practicum: SOCW6020T
- Generalist Social Work Practicum: SOCW6010T
- Possible CU Course Credit for affiliated colleges of Columbia University tied to education plans, independent studies, or alternatively negotiated credits.
- Possible stipends upon completion of proposals and internal SIG budgeting standpoints.
- Access to Columbia University student resources, including libraries, workshops, and wellness programs.
- Mentorship from senior researchers with extensive experience in receiving grants and NIH funded projects.
- Opportunities to author or co-author publications as well as contribute to grant proposals and present at conferences.
Promotional Opportunities Working with SIG and CU
- Advancement to Senior Research Assistant, Project Coordinator, or staff positions within SIG.
- Continued involvement in signature projects such as PrEP for Wings, GAyI, or HEAL as they scale nationally and globally.
- Professional pathways toward doctoral level studies, academic research careers, or leadership positions in nonprofits, clinical practices, think tanks, policy organizations, or more.
- Unique Opportunities to build expertise at the intersection of social work, emerging technologies, and public health interventions.
SIG's Equal Employment Opportunity and Non Discrimination Statement
- It is important to acknowledge the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory resourced at Columbia University School of Social Work Lenape and Wappinger indigenous people's land. Let us commit ourselves to the struggle against the forces that have dispossessed the Lenape, Wappinger, and other indigenous people of their lands.
- Columbia University is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive work environment where all members of our community thrive. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, ethnicity, sex, gender, identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other status protected by law.
Part 2: Case Study Analysis
Located within Columbia University's School of Social Work (CSSW), The Social Intervention Group (SIG) is dedicated to advancing researched solutions to global and social inequities in the areas of HIV, substance use, violence, and trauma. Working at SIG diverged from human resource management (HRM) pathways catalyzing from a professor who recommended their former supervisor, Dr. Elwin Wu. The associated job description is a best attempt at capturing the role as Graduate Student Researcher or Social Work Intern as recruitment was relational, consisting initially of exploratory interviews. While recruitment, onboarding, and supervision experiences at SIG align with HR best practices in job description clarity, recruitment and retention, supervision, and workforce development, nuances and critiques of SIG's job hiring processes are unveiled alongside literature for HR management.
Relational Recruitment Versus Formal Job Description
The placement emerged informally through mentorship, ensuring alignment with academic interests and professional goals while emphasizing the risks of informal networks. Job descriptions are "the cornerstone of most HR functions, linking jobs to performance and compensation expectations," and their absence limits clarity (Bauer et al., 2019 pg. 284). Job analysis is the "systematic process of determining the skills, duties, and knowledge required for performing jobs in an organization" (HRMBN n.d., pg. 30). This recruitment pipeline was highly effective, but raises broader equity concerns. Informal recruitment perpetuates exclusion and accessibility issues (Recruitment Embraces Diversity, n.d., pg.2). Strategic workforce planning requires standardized processes to anticipate needs and equity, something Gandhi et al. (2025) posits with structured approaches as the only way organizations can "address gaps in skills and equity" (pg. 3). While the New York State Department of Labor (n.d.) requires employers to inform on rates and conditions of employment (para. 12), this experience illustrates the strengths of academic mentorship and how it diverges from HRM's protocols.
Supervision as Performance Management and Professional Development
Rather than formal descriptions, supervision at SIG assists in task clarity. Weekly meetings with Dr. Wu and group supervision with Dr. Goddard-Eckrich provides space to discuss responsibilities and professional development. These supervisory structures also guide responsibilities in outreach, organizational processes, initiatives, and connecting work to Leadership, Management, and Entrepreneurship (LME) practices. Framing of supervision as a mode of performance management, or "a continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals" (HRMBN, n.d. Pg. 15), SIG's use of process recordings supervision echoes HRM recommendations. While contemporary organizational leadership models emphasize empathy and results as most effective for employee engagement (McKinsey & Company, 2023. Pg. 7), Miller (2020) argues that effective organizations "manage the work, not the people." SIG supervisors encourage autonomy while maintaining accountability (pg. 3), and Pogany (2024) reinforces that mediation and communication skills are essential to bridge relationships in HR contexts (p. 22). SIG's mentorship driven supervision establishes clarity and career growth opportunities in absence of formalized job description.
Onboarding and the Limits of Informal Hiring Processes
Onboarding began with orientation on September 15th that provided materials and informed briefly on initiatives and compliance training in HIPAA, CITI certification, and Good Clinical Practice. With orientation being "the process of introducing new employees to the organization, their job, and coworkers," SIG's onboarding strategy can directly influence retention as "nearly 20 percent of new hires leave within the first 45 days" when expectations are unclear (HRMBN. N.d., pg. 41; Kirchherr et al., 2025, pg. 6). SIG's process of welcoming new employees embeds and exposes them to culture and initiatives, but knowing one's responsibilities in advance motivates agents and is an essential onboarding pillar. Moreover, the collectivity I experienced in orientation reflects how inclusive cultures have a competitive advantage for job retention (Alemany & Vermeulen, 2023 pg. 88). Orientation at SIG combined strong elements of cultural integration with lackluster moments occurring prior to employment relating to job clarity that illustrates alignment and divergence from HRM theories.
Strengths, Limitations, and Future Directions of HRM in Academic Placements
Seeking and onboarding as Graduate Student Researcher at SIG exemplifies both the strengths and gaps of mentorship recruitment and supervision centered roles. The relational hiring process ensured a strong fit between involved parties, while supervision and onboarding provided clarity and cultural integration. With the LME concentration emphasizing leadership roadmaps, stakeholder engagement, and organizational development, absence of a formal job description illustrates challenges for compliance and equity. Bauer et al. (2019) emphasizes that job descriptions provide the foundation for understanding and organization, the sought after role, and the qualifications, responsibilities, skills, basic requirements, and any additional information related to compensation and performance expectations (pg. 284). Transparency around performance and compensation are less visible at SIG, reflecting a broader challenge in academic settings. With "clear communication of benefits" being "critical for employee motivation and retention" (Bauer et al., 2019; pg. 312), informal recruitment further risks narrowing access to diverse applicants. Considering the role is compensated with course credit, wage and hour laws reinforce documentation for clarity and compliance (Department of Labor, n.d. Para. 10). To intentionally incorporate workforce planning into SIG is adjacent to Gandhi et al.'s (2025) argument that structured planning maintains sustainability. It is essential to consider reskilling job opportunities to portray the evolving world of work, as AI reshapes professional roles and organizations collectively face a bottleneck to incorporate technology or suffer (Tamayo et al., 2023, pg. 59). Algorithms making decisions for agents must be balanced with human oversight to ensure fairness, but job descriptions and responsibilities must adapt to display roles prepared for changing workplaces (Zielinski, 2023, pg. 25). To integrate HRM practices into mentorship driven models within organizations like SIG could ensure both equity and compliance, while compounding strengths in collectivity and professional development.
Conclusion: Balancing Paths for Mentorship with HR Management Best Practices
HRM literature in tandem with the experience of joining SIG as Graduate Student Researcher and Social Work Intern demonstrates how relational recruitment, strong supervision, and immersive onboarding can successfully unify interns and new hires into complex organizational environments. However, The absence of a written job description illustrates a divergence from HRM best practices that prioritize clarity, equity, and compliance. While recruitment centering those who seek mentorship aligns with generating a positive culture of academic disciplinary research, it risks limiting access for those outside established networks. The balance of relational approaches with formal HRM process is essential for entities like SIG that benefit from adopting standardized and transparent job hiring processes. Without sacrificing strengths in mentorship and supervision for professional development, formal processes combined with relational practices will be essential to ensuring equity, retention, and long term sustainability at SIG and among many other organizations.
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