Program shows linguistics can lead to careers beyond teaching & interpreting

Never mind the narrative that a linguistics degree is one of the “useless” certifications to obtain in Nigeria, even if it keeps you awake at night!

When students think about the reality of job-hunting as experienced by their forerunners, they tend to reconsider their choice of course to study in the university. But if it gets too late to make a different choice at the time of their reflection, they tend to think of what way out.

However, finding a way out is not that easy. Let us assume you are studying a course—like linguistics (maybe)—that is less marketable in such a particular country like our dear Nigeria, your worry doubles. The fact that as a linguistics student you will also be jostling for a job with millions in the scarce job market compounds this problem.

The purpose of this article is neither to counter the dispiriting one-sided story about linguistics being a “useless” course, nor is it to convince you that there is a job waiting for you out there. The article is also not for everyone; it is particularly for linguistics students in the search for a career path.

We write this with the aim of introducing you to the many opportunities for linguists outside academia; to convince you on why you should listen to a podcast that could potentially serve as a guide in your career decision and journey.

That millions of graduates are unemployed is concerning. More concerning is the fact that millions of graduates are not exposed to the career opportunities within their field where their theoretical knowledge could be handy—no thanks to the Nigerian educational system and job scarcity.

But there is always a way out for students in such a beleaguered circumstance. And one of the ways is learning from the experiences of others.

By the time you listen to series of sessions on the podcast this article will recommend, two things must happen to you—one, you will be disabused of the constant societal misconception that you can only get a job as an English language teacher or an interpreter in the embassy after earning a linguistics degree; two, you will gain some level of clarity on career paths available for linguists.

The program

Your perception of linguistics at the moment, the level of your study/career journey, or whether you have a skill or not does not matter right now.

The hosts of a program interview linguists who had once been in your shoes, and they most definitely ask the numerous questions you are yearning to ask linguists outside the teaching profession.

Devoted to exploring careers for linguists outside academia, the Linguistics Careercast conducts interviews with linguists in industry. Interviewed linguists include recent employees, mid-career and professionals with more than 30 years of industry experience.

The hosts give a brief introduction of the guest(s), including their work experience(s), and the various topics to be discussed in the session. The program publishes the recorded interview as a podcast. On the podcast, you will get to understand how your classes in sociolinguistics or discourse analysis, for instance, empower you for a role in customer research or tech.

You should pay keen attention from the beginning to the end of the informational interviews, especially when interviewees share how their linguistic background—and specific courses—equip them for their current roles.

Another interesting component of the podcast is that guest linguists are from diverse industries, including tech, marketing, UX research, data analysis, translation, speech pathology, content creation, and many other industries you might expect linguists to be.

While the podcast involves mainly Q&A, interviewees are allowed to tell their stories, share how linguistics prepare them for their current jobs, how they get the job and, occasionally, brief on the project they are currently working on. In many cases, the linguists make known their availability for a one-on-one chat with you via email or LinkedIn.

Some stories

Some linguists’ stories are unique and resonate. You may find out that there was once someone like you who had no idea what linguistics is about. Or a linguist who now has several years of experience but initially took a course in linguistics simply because it was fun.

One of such interesting stories was that of David Peterson who is now a language inventor. If you have seen the movie series Games of Thrones, David created the language uttered by some of the characters. He shared in one of the podcast series that linguistics was initially not his thing; he thought learning about language abstractly was “a waste of time and pointless” when his mother asked him to take classes in linguistics. He took the classes anyway, but it was merely as an alternative.

David would later pick serious interest in the discipline, receiving a master’s degree in linguistics. He is the author of a brilliant book on language invention, The Art of Language Creation. (You should check it out.)

David featured on the podcast alongside Jessie Sams, a full-time professional conlanger.

Jessie says something every student must understand: “I try as hard as I can to tell my students to think beyond academics.” Not because it is not a noble career, but because it could be “potentially limiting”. Besides, there are more opportunities to explore in industry.

Another memorable quote from this particular session is: “There are jobs that you could never have imagined, and they’re possible.”

Global industries such as Google, Meta, Babbel, Duolingo, Uber, and non-profit organizations, government agencies, etc. have employed linguists in roles including technical communication, content managing, linguistic engineering, naming, localization, user experience and design, etc.

Some of the linguists made bold claims that linguists are the best fit for some industry roles.

“In customer research, if there is any group that’s capacitated to just go out and talk to people, it’s linguists”, a manager of ethnographic research in a theme parks and resort company, Mary-Caitlyn Valentinsson, said in a November edition of the podcast.

The Vice President of Import & Innovation for Boys & Girls Clubs of the Greater Washington, Minnie Quartey, noted: “Linguists make the best of everything” —an admonition to you to also make the best of everything.

Peter Benson, who has worked on speech recognition, user interface, and artificial intelligence, also urges linguistics graduates— “Be open to doing things that are not what you studied in school”.

Who shouldn’t listen to the podcast?

Well, the podcast is generally recommended for aspiring linguistics students who are unsure whether to major in linguistics or not; and more essentially, for fresh graduates in search for a career path.

You can listen to the recorded sessions on Spotify or watch the Linguistic Career Launch on YouTube.

Knowledge Nugget

● A Nigerian engineer recently launches YarnGPT, a family of text-to-speech models unique for its usage of Nigerian accents. YarnGPT also translates and reads texts in three major Nigeria languages; Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. — EqualyzAI

● A dummy’s guide to how AI is trained to understand human languages. —TheCable

● 12 most difficult words to spell that even professors fail at. —Study International