What can you do with a degree in linguistics? Linguistics graduates have built careers in foreign service, law, international business, marketing and branding, translation and interpreting, lexicography, teaching English as a Second Language in the US and abroad, information technology, technical writing, publishing, and diverse forms of social media. Students who augment their linguistics training with computer science coursework, for instance, are highly valued by companies that develop natural-language processing tools for speech recognition, speech synthesis, automatic translation, and information retrieval. Even if you do not intend to work in a language-related profession, the linguistics major can benefit you: business and industry employers are increasingly aware that linguistics majors have well developed skills in complex problem solving and pattern detection.
If you want to know more about the field of linguistics, what the linguistics major is about, and how you can use a BA degree in linguistics, go to聽聽on the Linguistics Society of America website. We also encourage you to visit Dr. Anna Marie Trester鈥檚 website聽聽for up-to-date ideas about careers for students who have studied linguistics. Dr. Trester, a linguist who is currently employed at聽,聽has given several career-oriented workshops to undergraduate and graduate students here at CU Boulder and at other universities. She is a friend of this department.听For more ideas on 鈥渨here the linguists are working,鈥� read her highly informative article BRIGHTEN.听
鈥婩inally, linguistics majors often pursue graduate study in linguistics and closely related areas, including anthropology, communication,聽computer science,聽education, foreign languages,聽international affairs, law, journalism,聽neuroscience, philosophy,聽psychology, speech, language, and hearing science, and speech pathology. 聽