Career Exploration

CLA Career Services
411 Bruininks Hall 

John Wetzel

Career development is a lifelong process of self-discovery, career exploration, gaining meaningful experiences, intentional reflection, and career decision-making and planning. Use CLA Career Services staff and resources to help you navigate your career development process.

Explore

Linguistics blends your interests in science, language, and communication, allowing you to pursue a number of professional fields. A degree in linguistics can help you reach careers such as translator, artificial intelligence researcher, speech synthesis researcher, linguistic consultant, dialect coach, publisher, language documentation specialist, instructor, or related manager or director. The skills you gain in critical thinking, analytical reasoning, research, clarity of expression, and verbal and written communication will be immediately applicable.  This is true whether you accept a career in linguistics or a related field or pursue graduate studies.

Experience

What you do outside of the classroom can improve your confidence, enhance your skills, and build your resume. We encourage you to seek out real-world experience through internships, community engagement, and research opportunities to help you feel confident in your decision upon graduation. Students may also gain valuable and relevant skills in linguistics by studying abroad or joining linguistics organizations.

Excel

Prioritize your next steps by building an effective strategy for applying to graduate programs, jobs, and/or service opportunities. We encourage you to schedule an individual appointment with John Wetzel, explore Handshake for jobs and internships, and attend upcoming career events and workshops to start building a network. You can also connect with career services online via LinkedIn.

Want to learn more about careers in linguistics?

The Linguistic Society of America published an in-depth article about job opportunities for linguists.

Thinking About Graduate School?

Many undergraduates in linguistics pursue graduate school to further their education. Our graduates have been accepted to a variety of graduate schools across the country and internationally, including:

  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Maryland
  • UMass Amherst
  • MIT
  • UCLA
  • University of Texas
  • Texas A&M
  • University of Southern California
  • University of California at Berkeley
  • University of California at Santa Cruz
  • Ohio State University
  • Yale University
  • Harvard University
  • University of Hawaii
  • Oxford University
  • University of Edinburgh