Instructor: Hadas Kotek
Wednesdays 2-3:20pm; 5-231 or virtual
The industry workshop aims to equip its participants with the knowledge required to apply for non-academic jobs.
Each meeting will be comprised of two parts:
an external speaker for the first 30-45 minutes of the meeting (see list below)
a discussion topic, review of participants’ material, and/or hands-on practice
We will cover topics such as: types of jobs for linguists, types of industries and companies linguists are employed in, transferable skills, internships and other ways you can prepare for the market, searching for jobs and networking, preparing a resume, interviewing, negotiating offers, and special considerations for international students. We will use Canvas alongside a communal course notes document to collect and disseminate materials and to share links to relevant web pages, job ads, and other resources among ourselves.
Anyone who might consider a non-academic job (i.e., everyone!) is invited to attend. It may be of particular interest to graduating students, but also to anyone who wants to plan a few years ahead and has the time to adjust their studies and projects to be better prepared for a diverse job market.
The expected workload for this workshop is quite low. I do not intend to assign any required homework or readings. Ideally you will leave this workshop after having done a bit of introspection into the types of skills you most enjoy using and the jobs and industries where you could put them to use, you will have a draft resume that has gone through at least one iteration of feedback+revising, and you will have practiced at least some basic interview questions. Where relevant, you will have also thought about what changes or additions you might make to your existing coursework and projects to become better prepared for a future career of interest.
External speakers:
David Q. Sun, Siri NL data science manager: 9/21 (in person)
Andy Zhang, Google Ads analytical linguist: 9/28 (virtual)
Afton Coombs, Spotify data science: 10/5 (virtual)
Ruth Brillman, Google software engineer: 10/12 (in person)
Alaina Talboy, author of “What I Wish I Knew: A Field Guide for Thriving in Graduate Studies”: 10/19 (virtual)
Sarah Clark, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) strategic communications officer: 10/26 (virtual)
Katharina Pabst, educational developer, York University: 11/2 (virtual)
Khia Johnson, Audio@Meta UX researcher: 11/9 (virtual)
Kim Witten, career coach: 11/16 (virtual)
(11/23 – no class: Thanksgiving)
Sherry Yong, Alexa AI knowledge engineer: 11/30 (virtual)
Charlotte Prieu, Amazon data linguist: 12/7 (virtual)