Career Development

What can I do with a Linguistics degree?

A degree in Linguistics develops core skills in problem-solving, finding patterns in complicated data, and writing and argumentation. These abilities can be emphasized when applying for many different kinds of jobs.

Resources for matching your skills to the jobs you want

• University Career Services at UNC-CH
• Advice from Ask A Manager about finding a career path: [1] [2] [3]
  • See also: tips for successful cover letters, resumes, and interviews
• Liberal arts, humanities, critical thinking are in demand!
  • What can you do with that liberal arts degree? (Forbes)
  • Liberal arts are the best preparation — even for a business career (by Edgar M. Bronfman of Seagram Corp; Inside Higher Ed)

Some possibilities to consider

• Careers that have a close connection to language and linguistics include:
  • Language teaching (see ACTFL, TESOL, Center for Applied Linguistics)
  • Speech pathology/speech and hearing science (see ASHA, NSSLHA)
  • Language and information technologies — including speech synthesis and recognition, text-content analysis, and machine translation (see, for example, Google, Microsoft; see also The Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL))
  • Information and library science (list of professional associations, from U Southern California)
  • Editing and publishing (Careers in editing and publishing, from U Washington)
• Professional schools (law schools, journalism schools, etc.) recognize that students with a linguistics degree have strengths in critical thinking, argumentation, and analysis
• US citizens with a background in linguistics may find jobs with US government agencies (USAJobs)
• Companies hiring linguists, from the College of William and Mary
• The Jobs area at LINGUIST List (includes both academic and non-academic jobs)
• Many more ideas, from the Linguistic Society of America
• LSA Special Interest Group on “Linguistics Beyond Academia” — includes resources (scroll down)

Graduate school in linguistics

Some students choose to continue specializing in linguistics teaching or research. For this, they will typically need to obtain a graduate degree in linguistics.

Graduate programs in linguistics

• The graduate program in Linguistics at UNC-CH
• The LINGUIST List’s online directory of linguistics degree programs
• Data on graduate programs in applied linguistics, from CAL

Success in graduate school

• The Professor Is In — getting through grad school, the academic job market, non-academic options
• Book recommendations:
  • Surviving Linguistics, by Monica Macaulay
  • How to Write a Lot, by Paul J. Silvia
  • Writing your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day, by Joan Bolker