Jobs for the Major
How this major affects a job search
We're entering a whole new age of technology. Social networks now make it possible to communicate with anyone with a Wi-Fi connection. Every cell phone comes with voice recognition software. Internet search engines are better at completing your sentences than your so-called soul mate.
Lucky for you, these areas all require the expertise of tech-savvy linguists. Ah, the future is bright for linguists—especially computational linguists with advanced degrees. Google and Microsoft, here we come.
For the foreign language and sociology experts, second language education, translation, and localization are three areas that are always hiring. Most translation jobs require near-native fluency, but it really helps to know how languages differ in structure and word usage. Even though more and more people are learning English, there are still plenty who don't.
There's also tons of research to be done. Linguistics research is nice compared to the hard sciences, where you have to learn about all the bajillion theories and universal laws beforehand. In linguistics, you can start straight away. There's plenty of unexplored territory.
Grad school is a great option for those pursuing research, teaching, speech pathology, or a law degree. About half of linguistics majors go on to pursue an advanced degree, but it's still possible to get a good job without one.
Common Career Fields
Second Language Teacher. There are two main types of second language teachers: those who studied a certain language and those who studied linguistics with a focus in a certain language. Those in the first group were probably childhood friends with their language. Maybe they lived together in college. They probably know all about their language's family, friends, habits, and history. Those in the second group, on the other hand…have seen their language naked. Calm down, we mean in a doctor-patient way. They know all about their language's blemishes, bumps, and birthmarks, but they also know all about the anatomy and structure of language in general. Turns out, both groups make pretty good second language teachers.
Computational Linguist. Ever wondered why conversations with Cleverbot are a little one-sided? Yeah, we're not there yet, but we're getting there. Soon, C-3PO will be a reality. Well, hopefully. Computer programmers are fluent in computer language, but if you're trying to imitate natural language as closely as possible, computational linguists are the experts. You could totally get a job at a small startup company with just a Bachelor's, but jobs at big companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo are reserved for those with advanced degrees.
Editor/Copyeditor. Studying syntax and semantics will make punctuation and capitalization rules a lot more intuitive, and it also makes it easier to straighten out mangled sentences. A common misconception about linguistics majors is that they study editing standards, or "prescriptive" language rules. In truth, linguistics is mainly the descriptive study of language. Even though you wouldn't be directly applying what you studied, a linguistics background makes for a more informed, linguistically aware writer/editor. It's kind of like how studying human anatomy made Michelangelo a better painter.
Lawyer. (Requires law school) "Linguistics and law? Get real, Shmoop." No, seriously. Linguists can make really good lawyers. Hear us out. To be an effective lawyer, you need to know how to manipulate language to evoke a certain image, emotion, or message. This includes, for example, knowing when to use the passive voice ("And this is when the last cookie was eaten…by whom? We don't know."). They also need to know what questions are considered "leading" or "presupposing." A background in linguistics has practical applications for lawyers, too, like translating legalese into layman's terms. Your defense/prosecution will be useless if the jury has to use a dictionary every two seconds. Semantics and logic courses come in real handy here.
Localization/Translation. Some people think that we need one universal language to unify the entire human world…and it looks like it'll be English. Whether or not this is a good thing (it's not), we need people to translate for us in the meantime. Also, all of us speaking the same language won't change the fact that different cultures exist, and it's not like English won't evolve into other languages, like with Latin. (Mwahaha, it's alive.) So as long as language communities are still a thing, we'll need sociolinguists who know a thing or two about them. With their help, certain products can more effectively be extended to a wider array of potential consumers. This is also known as localization.
Research Linguist. Some companies hire linguists for research, depending on what their goal is. The military or CIA might want a linguist to identify potential terrorist threats in phone conversations. A translation company might want a linguist to sift through a body of text and label parts of speech. Nowadays, a lot of linguistics research positions require proficiency in a programming language, but a lot of tech companies also look for people who know about syntax, semantics, and morphology. If you're looking to do your own research, you can get a PhD at a research university and become a professor. Ahh, pure linguistics all day, every day.
Speech Pathologist. (Requires grad school) If Daffy Duck wanted to fix his lisp, he'd consult a speech language pathologist (a.k.a. a speech therapist). Speech pathologists are like doctors that specialize in human vocal anatomy and language cognition. These positions usually require an advanced degree in speech pathology, and having a Bachelor's in linguistics is a great jumping-off point. Speech and communication disorders mainly deal with phonology and phonetics, but also psycholinguistics. To be a SLP (not LSP), you need to know all about how the brain produces speech, acoustics and sound waves, and where your tongue is supposed to go when you talk (hint: inside your mouth).
Current unemployment of the major
10.2%Percentage of majors who get a higher degree after college
47%Stats obtained from this source.