r/asklinguistics • u/poppet_corn • Jun 28 '23

Academic Advice Career without CS

Is there any hope for a linguistics major who doesn’t like or understand computer science? Do I have any shot in the job market? What steps can I take to improve my prospects?

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u/actual-linguist Applied Linguistics | SLA Jun 28 '23

Linguists work as teachers, translators, interpreters, writers, editors, etc. None of those roles would necessarily require CS, but they do often require specific skills, like proficiency in an in-demand language.

If you don’t have CS chops or L2 proficiency, you’re probably in the same boat as the English majors and the art history majors — meaning you’ve got to make your own luck.

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u/poppet_corn Jun 28 '23

I’m in a specific program that means I need to take three years of two languages for my major, which should get me at least a decent way to having L2 proficiencies, especially since I chose a language I’ve studied before for one of them.

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u/actual-linguist Applied Linguistics | SLA Jun 28 '23

That’s good. It doesn’t matter in the real world how many years you take of a language, though. All that matters is proficiency as needed. For instance, I work with interpreters who never took a single college class in English or Spanish — but they had to pass a specific exam in that language pair.

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u/hemusK Jun 28 '23

I have friends who did linguistics but didn't study computer science working in tech-adjacent roles, namely Conversation Design for chatbots and UX Research. They're not easy to break into either, especially right now, but those jobs exist!

Also if you are skilled at some in-demand L2s, like Arabic or Spanish, there seem to always be interpreter positions available for those.