Linguistics Careercast

“It was a wake-up call – my marriage is more important to me than that job” Emily Pace has a breadth of experience across the non-profit, public, and private sectors, including at several technology companies, the National Association of Attorneys General, the Close Up Foundation, and the Library of Congress. She was one of the leaders of Linguistics Career Launch 2021 and is now heading up Lingui...

“Linguistics has given me frameworks to build my career on, and to get wildly creative within those frameworks” Alexandra Botti is a radio and podcast producer, sociolinguist, ballet dancer and ballet teacher. She is a dual citizen of the United States and France, and grew up primarily in the Boston area; she holds a Master’s degree in Language and Communication from Georgetown University. After e...

“There are many pathways to the solution to climate change, and that means more jobs for linguists” Jackson Kuzmik was born and raised in Hong Kong and received his Master’s in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics from the University of Cambridge in England. Alongside various research positions, he has worked in outreach for an environmental research center, as a product management intern at a lang...

“Language is the code that cracks open access to people in the world” Emily Sabo is a writer and data analyst who specializes in scientific communication, applied research, and digital content creation. While she was earning her PhD at University of Michigan, she traveled around South America, Europe & Asia researching how languages are processed in the bilingual brain. In her industry career, she...

“Passion doesn’t always have to be the thing that pays you” Emily Gref has been a bookseller, copy editor, literary agent, and, most recently, an exhibit content manager for the Planet Word museum in Washington, DC. She received her BA in linguistics from McGill University and an MA in Language Documentation and Description from SOAS, University of London, where she began creating books and resour...

“We all end up training ourselves throughout our careers” Brad Davidson is a linguist and medical anthropologist with extensive experience in marketing, positioning, branding, and overall customer and patient provider experience. He received his PhD in Linguistics from Stanford University and worked as a professional namer, before moving into life sciences and healthcare marketing. He’s currently...

“It feels weird to say I’ve ‘just’ been working” Dmitry Tereshenko is a neurodivergent, first-generation college graduate who earned his Master’s degree in the MLC program at Georgetown. His work has explored human-human and human-computer interaction (HCI), specializing in the intersection of how digital technologies mediate our communication in virtual spaces. In his employment, Dmitry has vario...

“Networking is mutual aid.” Daniel Ginsberg is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the American Anthropological Association, where they bring their knowledge of association management and organizational anthropology to help association leaders understand the culture of the AAA community and create new pathways into active, engaged membership. For the previous four years as Director of Educati...

“Where in your body do you feel a ‘yes’?” Aubrie Amstutz is a cognitive linguist & researcher working towards AI Fairness. She earned a Master’s in Linguistics and Cognitive Science at University of Siena in Italy. She is interested in using empirical linguistic research to dispel language myths. This has taken the form of promoting anti-accent stigma in second language development at Duolingo, ex...

“The jump to industry means recognizing transferable skills, industry prep, and interview prep” This episode is an audio presentation of a talk called “Alexa, how can I transition to industry positions with a background in (mostly qualitative) critical discourse analysis?” The presenter is Alfonso Sánchez-Moya, who previously appeared as a guest on this podcast. It was given in October 2023 at Geo...

“Naming isn’t an academic exercise – it’s more about your gut feeling about a name” Eric Jackson is a linguist, namer, and brand strategist. He earned his master’s degree in linguistics from Boston University, where his thesis was called “A linguistic introduction to brand naming”. His employment as a namer has spanned top-tier companies like Lexicon Branding , Salt Branding (now Material ), and N...

“Including personal information on your resume is recommended – it shows recruiters that you’re a well-rounded person” Marina Zhukova is finishing a PhD in linguistics at UC Santa Barbara. During her time in school, both in the US and Russia, where she was born, she has held a number of internships related to linguistics, most recently at Amazon, working on Alexa. Marina is skilled in Conversation...

“I’m a jack of all trades – all linguists are” Falene McKenna is a linguist, tech enthusiast, conversation wizard, and a “true robot whisperer”. She studied Computational Linguistics at the University of Alberta. Since then, she’s led QA crusades, expanded beta programs across North American homes, and built customer support systems from the ground up. Falene has presented at various events, inclu...

Michal Temkin Martinez Anna Marie Trester “Don’t let one bridge troll stop you – find another bridge!'” Anna Marie Trester is Michal Temkin Martinez Anna Marie Trester on LinkedIn Buy Anna Marie’s books, Employing Linguistics and Bringing Linguistics to Work Career Linguist network Michal Temkin Martinez on LinkedIn and on Wikipedia Michal Temkin Martinez’ website Boise State University Linguistic...

“Just because you have a PhD doesn’t mean you’ll get hired at an advanced position in a company.” Kaitlyn Tagarelli earned her PhD in Linguistics from Georgetown University and eventually made the move to the language-learning industry, making it more fun, accessible, and effective through evidence-based solutions. She is currently Head of Research for Mango Languages . She draws on her interdisci...

This episode is an audio version of a virtual career panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2021. The title of the panel is Educational Technology. Our three panelists followed different routes from linguistics into Education Technology. They’ll share their decisions about taking these routes, and what’s involved in this profession. The moderator in Kaitlyn Tagarelli . Paneli...

“I had a foot out the door for years – and it was still a total re-evaluation of my life'” After getting her Ph. D. in Linguistics from Berkeley, Suzanne Wertheim held faculty positions at Northwestern, University of Maryland, and UCLA. In 2011, she left the university system in order to apply her expertise to real-world problems. Suzanne has done fieldwork with speakers as diverse as Tatar nation...

“You’ve got to figure out how to talk about your own expertise'” Bozena Pajak is is the Vice President of Learning and Curriculum at Duolingo , where she works at the intersection of learning science and product development. She got her PhD at UC San Diego, training in linguistics and cognitive psychology. She now focuses on developing digital educational products that are both effective and motiv...

“Don’t underestimate the power of the skills you have.” This episode is an audio version of a virtual career panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2021. Our three panelists followed different routes from linguistics into work in non-profit organizations. They share their decisions about taking these routes, and what’s involved in working in this sector. The moderator is Alex...

“You have to ask yourself, ‘What am I meant to be doing when I’m done with graduate school?'” Kate Mesh is a linguist who is working as a disability-inclusive researcher in London, England. She helps major brands to improve their designs by observing the friction points, and innovated solutions, of their customers with a range of specific access needs. She leads accessibility-oriented projects tha...

“In industry, personal qualities are just as important as qualifications – who you are, what you’re interested in.” This episode is an audio version of a virtual career panel held at the Linguistics Career Launch in the summer of 2021. It’s true: Developing brand names is a real job, and one for which linguists are particularly well-suited. In this Career Linguist panel, three professional namers...

“Sometimes having a PhD will not be to your advantage – it can put you in a box” Alfonso Sánchez-Moya is a discourse analyst currently employed at Amazon. He earned a PhD in English linguistics in Spain and did post doctoral work at Harvard and at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He is particularly interested in online discourse and multimodal communication, mostly looking at the connections bet...

“There’s nothing more important than staying in touch with people” This episode is an audio version of a live recording of the Linguistics Careercast podcast. The panel was held on June 24, 2023, as part of the 2023 LSA Summer Institute at University of Massachusetts, Amherst . Today our three panelists will discuss non-academic career options combining cognitive science and linguistics, focusing...

“You may be looking for a job, but people are looking for YOU.” Careers for linguists in government roles are more that just working for a three-letter agency. The government is a big space which presents lots of room to work on different problems of public interest. In this panel, three linguists talk about their path from academia to government roles at the federal and state level. Panelists: –...

“If you think you can do a job, apply for it – even if you don’t meet all of the qualifications!” Kristina Wagers is a Principal Solutions Architect at Gainwell Technologies ; she is part of the Conversation Design Team for Gainwell’s Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology. After starting out as a biology major, she switched to English Language and Literature and then earned her Master’s in A...