Linguistics Careercast Linguistics Careercast

"Don't underestimate the power of the skills you have."

This episode is an audio version of a virtual career panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2021. Our three panelists followed different routes from linguistics into work in non-profit organizations. They share their decisions about taking these routes, and what’s involved in working in this sector.

The moderator is Alex Johnston.

Panelists:

Marissa Fond on LinkedIn
Meg Montee on LinkedIn
Minnie Quartey on LinkedIn

Topics include

- non-profits
- Center for Applied Linguistics
- applied linguistics
- testing
- government work
- data analyst
- framing
- collaboration
- grant proposals
- funding

"You have to ask yourself, 'What am I meant to be doing when I'm done with graduate school?'"

Kate Mesh is a linguist who is working as a disability-inclusive researcher in London, England. She helps major brands to improve their designs by observing the friction points, and innovated solutions, of their customers with a range of specific access needs. She leads accessibility-oriented projects that shape strategy and design choices for businesses ranging from retail corporations to government innovation agencies. Her fieldwork in grad school was focused on studying how hearing people gesture while they speak, and how deaf people adapt many of these gestures to use in young sign languages that are just now being created.

Kate Mesh on LinkedIn

Kate Mesh on Github

International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP)

CPACC Certification

Nancy Frishberg

Topics include

- ASL
- sign linguistics
- deaf studies
- post docs
- work environment
- networking
- research design
- project management
- ethnography
- bible translation
- Chatino

"In industry, personal qualities are just as important as qualifications - who you are, what you're interested in."

This episode is an audio version of a virtual career panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2021. It’s true: Developing brand names is a real job, and one for which linguists are particularly well-suited. In this Career Linguist panel, three professional namers will share their career journeys, how they use their linguistic training at work, and discuss the opportunities available in naming and branding for interested linguists.

Panelists:

Will Leben on LinkedIn
Eric Jackson on LinkedIn
Laurel Sutton on LinkedIn

LCL panel on translation/localization (YouTube video)
LCL naming workshop (YouTube video)

Topics include:
- naming
- branding
- sound symbolism
- linguistic skills
- trademarks
- cross-cultural communication
- teamwork

 

"Sometimes having a PhD will not be to your advantage - it can put you in a box"

Alfonso Sánchez-Moya is a discourse analyst currently employed at Amazon. He earned a PhD in English linguistics in Spain and did post doctoral work at Harvard and at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is particularly interested in online discourse and multimodal communication, mostly looking at the connections between language, ideology, power and identity. He is also interested in digital discourse and communication as key components of online education, fields he has been involved with in professional terms for the last ten years.

Alfonso Sánchez-Moya on LinkedIn

Alfonso's website

Topics include

- success in grad school
- discourse analysis
- non-linear paths
- digital discourse
- resumes
- bilingual education
- NLP

 

"There’s nothing more important than staying in touch with people"
This episode is an audio version of a live recording of the Linguistics Careercast podcast. The panel was held on June 24, 2023, as part of the 2023 LSA Summer Institute at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Today our three panelists will discuss non-academic career options combining cognitive science and linguistics, focusing on their journeys from academia to industry. Each of the panelists speaks about their experiences for about ten minutes, and then we go to questions both in the Zoom chat and live at the Institute, where the lovely and talented Hadas Kotek (Apple) moderates.

The video is available on the Linguistics Career Launch YouTube channel.

Best practices for informational interviews (LCL video)

Panelists:

Ann Thyme-Gobbel, Vice President, UX & Design, Milo
Jayden Ziegler, Vice President of Product, Alembic Technologies, Inc.
Michelle Gregory, Senior Vice President of Data Science at [24]7.ai

The panel was moderated by Christopher Stewart (Google) and Laurel Sutton (Catchword Branding).

Producer:
Alex Johnston, MLC Director, Georgetown University
Integrity Communications

 

Topics include
- cognitive science
- data science
- machine learning
- NLP
- product management
- informational interviews
- UX
- summer internships

"You may be looking for a job, but people are looking for YOU."

Careers for linguists in government roles are more that just working for a three-letter agency. The government is a big space which presents lots of room to work on different problems of public interest. In this panel, three linguists talk about their path from academia to government roles at the federal and state level.

Panelists:
- Sarah Clark on LinkedIn (U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory),
- Bill Marcellino on LinkedIn (RAND Corporation)
- Cecilia Castillo Ayometzi on LinkedIn (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority)

Moderator: Emily Pace

Topics include:
- sociolinguistics
- government work
- networking
- job titles
- data analyst
- qualitative data analysis
- behavioral science
- mixed methods
- transferable skills
- salary schedules
- public policy