Personal Care Aides

Any experience you can obtain caring for others—such as helping a grandparent or neighbor or volunteering at a community assistance organization—will be useful.

Working as a personal care aide is a rewarding, yet demanding, job. Successful aides enjoy helping others. They are patient, pleasant, and emotionally stable—especially when interacting with clients who are depressed, demanding, and sometimes argumentative and abusive. It takes a special person with a strong degree of empathy to work with the elderly and those with disabilities. Personal care aides must be organized and detail-oriented in order to manage the myriad details that are required to effectively care for clients. Time-management skills are important because clients and their families rely on aides to arrive on time for their work and take clients to appointments. Other important traits include excellent communication skills (including strong listening skills), the ability to follow instructions, and a good sense of humor.