Linguistics Career Resources
Using your linguistics degree to find the right career
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The Husky Experience for Linguistics: Translating your degree into career-relevant skills
- Ideas for Careers (or 'What can I do with a major in linguistics?')
General tips for finding careers
UW has a number of resources set up to help you find careers, so you should start at the following places:
- HuskyJobs: Online database of internships and jobs. You will need to create a profile using your UW ID (www.careers.uw.edu/huskyjobs)
- Career Center: Recruiting and career events. You can visit in-person or online (MGH; www.careers.uw.edu/calendar)
- Center for Experiential Learning and Diversity: In-person or online (MGH 171; www.washington.edu/carlson)
Linguistics Internship Resources
The Importance of Internships
Internships can help you:
- Explore career interests, occupations, and work environments
- Apply classroom knowledge and theory
- Learn new skills and refine the skills that you already have
- Expand your experience and enhance your resume
- Make contacts (coworkers, supervisors, mentors)
- Increase your chances of receiving job offers sooner rather than later
Ideas for Linguistics Internships
Don’t be discouraged by the fact that there are relatively few internships/jobs that specifically mention ‘linguistics.’ Linguistics is a broad field covering a wide range of possibilities; many employers are looking for people with exactly the type of practical skills that you learn as a linguist.
Try searching for smaller ‘subfields’:
- Computational Linguistics
- Translation/Language Specialists
- Language Teaching
- Language Policy
- Language Documentation or Revitalization
- Language Assessment
- Publishing/Writing/Editing
- Government
- Non-Profit Organizations
Finding an Internship
General Tips
UW has a number of resources set up to help you find internships, so you should start at the following places:
- HuskyJobs: Online database of internships and jobs. You will need to create a profile using your UW ID (www.careers.uw.edu/huskyjobs)
- Career Center: Recruiting and career events. You can visit in-person or online (MGH; www.careers.uw.edu/calendar)
- Center for Experiential Learning and Diversity: In-person or online (MGH 171; www.washington.edu/carlson)
You should also begin networking!
Linguistics Internships – Some Sample Links
The following is a non-exhaustive list of links to organizations that offer linguistics internships or other similar opportunities. While the department cannot vouch for these individual positions, these are a great way to get started in your search.
- Computational linguistics
- Translation
- Language Teaching: there are many options to teach English overseas
- Language Policy
- Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC
- It is also good to look into other types of organizations that focus on policy, even if the program is not specifically linguistics-oriented. See tips on creating and proposing an internship.
- Language Documentation/Revitalization
- Government:
- Assessment
Career and Internship Fairs
The Career Center offers a wide variety of workshops to help you succeed at Career Fairs and in other steps of the application process. Visit the their overview of online and in-person workshops.
Tips for Career Fairs
- Come prepared – look at companies ahead of time and familiarize yourself with the ones that interest you
- Have an ‘elevator speech’ prepared; there are many resources online with suggestions for preparing one
- Dress for what you want to do; business casual is a good default
- Bring resumes; consider attending a resume workshop
- Visit the UW Career Center for upcoming Career Fairs and Events