Career Resources

Review our resources for getting started when thinking about your career options.

Research Articles & Books

Interviews & Podcasts

  • Superlinguo blog posts: Superlinguo Linguistics Jobs Interviews 
    • Relatively short written interviews with lots of people who studied linguistics and are not academics, asking what they studied in university, what they do now, how linguistics is relevant, and their general advice about linguistics and careers.
    • “There are over 80 interviews with people who studied linguistics – be it a single undergraduate subject or a full PhD – and then gone on to careers outside of academia.”
  • Linguistics Careercast: linguisticscareercast.com/about/ 
    • “Linguistics Careercast is the podcast devoted to exploring careers for linguists outside academia. We feature interviews with linguists in industry at all stages of their careers: recently graduated, mid-career, and some with 30+ years of industry experience. These career linguists represent tech, marketing, UX, research, data analysis, translation, speech pathology, content creation, and much more.”
  • “What are you going to do with that?” podcast from the National Humanities Alliance 
    • “This podcast explores everyday folks’ decisions to study the humanities as undergraduates and their pathways to fulfilling careers. It is designed for students drawn to study the humanities in college who might be concerned about what that might mean for their career. It’s also for those who advise such students, whether as parents or professionals. The stories in this podcast debunk widespread misperceptions about humanities majors’ career prospects by highlighting some of the limitless possibilities for applying humanities knowledge and skills in today’s workforce.”
  • How they became linguists from the Linguist List
    • Brief written biographies of career linguists (mostly academics) who have taken different paths.

Gathering Information From Others

Discipline-specific General Summary Pages

  • Linguistic Society of America website: 
    • Linguistics as a Profession – general information about how to apply linguistics to different professions, including a list of possible jobs / relevant areas across different sectors
    • Careers in Linguistics – more specific information geared toward those interested in a professional designation as a ‘linguist,’ generally in an academic setting 
  • The UPSKILLS project (EU): upskillsproject.eu 
    • “The UPSKILLS project is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership for higher education that seeks to identify and tackle the gaps and mismatches in skills for linguistics and language students through the development of a new curriculum component and supporting materials to be embedded in existing programmes of study.”
  • UBC Faculty of Arts Page on Careers and Skills in Linguistics: https://students.ubc.ca/career/your-degree/arts/linguistics
    • more information on career possibilities, building your network, and making the most of your time in the program
  • All Things Linguistic resources and links: 
    • All Things Linguistic is a blog / website with lots of information related to linguistics, including job-related ideas and advice. 
    • allthingslinguistic.com/jobs
      • general information about jobs related to linguistics
    • Linguistics + X
      • information about how to take a foundation in linguistics and apply it in another area
    • Weird Internet Careers (scroll down the page to get to the first installment in this series of blog posts)
      • “Weird Internet Careers are the kinds of jobs that are impossible to explain to your parents, people who somehow make a living from the internet, generally involving a changing mix of revenue streams…. Weird Internet Careers are weird because there is no one else who does exactly what they do. They’re internet because they rely on the internet as a cornerstone, such as bloggers, webcomics, youtubers, artists, podcasters, writers, developers, subject-matter experts, and other people in very specific niches. And they’re careers because they somehow manage to support themselves, often making money from some combination of ad revenue, t-shirt sales, other merch, ongoing membership/subscription (Patreon, Substack), crowdfunding (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Ko-Fi), sponsorship deals, conventional book deals, self-published ebooks, selling online courses, selling products or apps or services, public speaking, and consulting.” 
  • The University of Toronto Mississauga careers in linguistics information page
  • Linguistics as a Career page from LinguistList
    • brief information taken from specific FAQs – not comprehensive
  • The Nonclinical SLP and SLP Transitions
    • websites geared toward current SLPs who want to go into non-clinical careers, but may give you other ideas of non-clinical options for those who never go the clinical route in the first place

UBC-Specific Career Resources

Professional Organizations

  • Canadian Linguistic Association
    • Professional organization for (primarily academic) linguists in Canada. Hosts an annual meeting and publishes an academic journal. 
  • Linguistic Society of America
    • Professional organization for linguistics in North America (primarily the US). Hosts an annual meeting, publishes several academic journals, puts on a bi-annual summer “Institute” for students, and has a wealth of information about the field and various career options. 
  • Speech and Hearing BC
    • Not-for-profit association for speech-language pathologists and audiologists in British Columbia. Includes a directory of practicing professionals, available jobs, and general public-facing resources.
  • The Linguist List
    • A website / mailing list that curates information about linguistics-related jobs, conferences, publications, and other events. Mostly geared toward academic linguists, but is definitely the go-to site for specifically linguistics jobs. 
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