Workshop: Congratulations, you have a degree in Linguistics! Now what?

Navigating the seas of academic and non-academic careers in linguistics

This workshop is primarily aimed at linguistics students who are either about to finish their Master’s programme or have finished it recently and are currently looking for job/PhD opportunities. Bachelor students are, of course, also welcome.

While attending the past few StuTSes, I noticed that many linguistics students who are about to finish their Master’s don’t feel prepared or even anxious about what’s the come after they have graduated. On the one hand, students who would like to continue their studies and do a PhD are having trouble with finding funding, since linguistics as a discipline is notorious for being severely underfunded and consequently offers few scholarships and even fewer paid PhD positions. And on the other hand, students who would prefer to work in the free economy (or are looking for alternatives in case they are unable to do a PhD) are worried about finding a (well-paid) job, since most humanities programmes are purely research-oriented and do not prepare you for non-academic jobs whatsoever.
Although some linguistics programmes try to prevent their students from getting overly worried about finishing their studies by offering guidance and consultation sessions, the issue is that, 1) this advice usually comes from people who have already finished their PhDs a while ago and therefore seem less relatable, 2) a lot of people who are currently working in academia have spent little or no time at all outside of academia and therefore have no clue about the current job market or how to apply your linguistic knowledge in a company.
Therefore, the aims of this workshop are the following:
• give an optimistic overview of the current job situation for linguists and hopefully take away some of your worries, while also giving an honest insight into the problems that pre- and post-docs in linguistics are currently facing,
• give advice on how to find and apply for PhD positions and scholarships,
• present (realistic) examples of how to use your linguistics knowledge to find a job outside of academia.
The workshop will mainly focus on the pre-doc phase, but post-doc opportunities will also be touched upon briefly. Please note that while I am by no means an expert or qualified employment agent, I hope the fact that I had been in your shoes until this year and have spent many years working non-academic side jobs over course of my studies might allow me to give you a more relatable viewpoint compared to some of your professors or teachers. This workshop will also give the opportunities for you to ask questions, either to be answered by me or to be discussed together as a group, so feel welcome to prepare them in advance.

Info

Tag: 11.05.2024
Anfangszeit: 10:10
Dauer: 01:00
Raum: Turtle (33.2.106)
Track: Diverse
Sprache: en

Programm 75. StuTS