Related to Major
Linguistics
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
For more information, visit the Department of Linguistics website.
Explore Your Possibilities
“Having a career goal really helps motivate students to succeed at school.” 81% of SFU students strongly agree or agree! (2025 Brainstorm Student Interests Report)
Explore the list of career outcomes below for ideas about what you can do with your major. Some are actual roles held by SFU alumni, and others are occupations commonly associated with each major.
Remember that knowledge from your major is just one thing you have to offer an employer. As careers become less linear, changing direction ha become the norm. Don’t worry about where you’ll be in the future – just focus on your next job. Use these ideas as a starting point to make a list of possibilities you are curious about and lean into your interests, skills and values in your exploration.
Options commonly associated with the major
- Child Learning and Development Specialist
- Terminologist
- Technical Writer
- Pronunciation/Dialect Coach
- Endangered Languages Educator
- Speech Writer
- Translator
- Sign Language Interpreter
Other Possibilities
Job titles beyond the typical options
- Social Researcher
- Communications Specialist
- Public Relations Assistant
- Study Abroad Officer
- Quality Assurance Tester
- Language Data Analyst
- Data Collection Assistant
- Web Content Migration Contractor
Further Education
Possibilities with additional education or training
- Linguist
- Machine Learning Engineer
- Lexicographer
- Audiologist
- Behavior Interventionist
- Speech Language Pathologist
- Financial Consultant
- Full Stack Software Developer
Fields of Work
There are myriad fields where you could find yourself following your undergraduate degree. For example:
- Arts and Culture
- Environment
- Health
- Manufacturing
- Scientific and Technical
- Telecommunications
What fields interest you? If you are uncertain, take the initiative and start exploring different fields. If your preferred fields turn out to not be what you expected, pause. Technology, climate change, automation, globalization and other factors may impact these fields and offer new or different opportunities.
The North American Industry Classification System gives you an overview of all industries and their subsectors.
WorkBC lets you browse careers, the education expectation, salary ranges, descriptions, and specific information about each job.
Core Skills (Major-Specific)
In the course of your undergraduate degree you’ll develop a wide array of skills. While many of these skills encompass essential skills important now, and for the future, you’ll also develop specialized knowledge and skills unique to your discipline learned through coursework.
Content knowledge and technical skills vary widely between occupations and are generally only used in one line of work. The type of skills that you’ll need depend on the scope of the work.
You want to understand what skills you developed and the one’s you want to use, so when someone asks you about your discipline content knowledge and skills you can speak clearly and confidently about them.
+ MAJOR Specific Skills
- Language structure typology skills from developing a comprehensive knowledge of the different types of languages that exist.
- Language pattern recognition and analysis skills from working with large linguistic datasets and formulating rules that explain the patterns of linguistic structure.
- Linguistic analysis software skills from extensive practice in using speech and text analysis software, some of which is at the forefront of AI technology.
- Comprehensive knowledge of the most current theories in both general and applied aspects of linguistics.
- Interdisciplinary skills from broad experience with how linguistics interfaces with other fields such as psychology, education, computer science, cognitive science, sociology, and anthropology.
- Linguistic laboratory skills from extensive experience participating in thriving research labs and learning the fundamentals about research design and ethics, participant recruitment and presentation of results.
- Develop both receptive and expressive communication competencies through collaborative projects, oral presentations, and written reports.
- Problem solving and critical thinking skills from comparing alternative solutions to datasets and alternative theoretical models for organizing and explaining patterns.
Foundational Skills
With ongoing economic, political and technological changes affecting the labour market, Canadians need diverse skills to thrive. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, in the next five years, 170 million jobs will be created and 92 million jobs will be displaced. Driving structural labour market shifts are macro trends that include digital access and adoption, an aging population and a greater focus on climate change solutions.
Skills for Success
· Adaptability: The ability to adjust to changing circumstances and embrace new approaches.
· Collaboration: Effectively working with others to achieve common goals.
· Communication: Articulating ideas clearly, actively listening and understanding different perspectives.
· Creativity & Innovation: Generating novel ideas and solutions and being comfortable with experimentation.
· Digital: Proficiently using and managing digital tools and technologies for a range of tasks.
· Numeracy: Analyzing and interpreting data to make informed decisions.
· Problem Solving: Identifying challenges, analyzing information and implementing solutions.
· Reading: Comprehending and extracting information from various sources.
· Writing: Communicating effectively in written form for different purposes and audiences.
These skills are highly valued and sought after by employers. You have likely developed a diverse range of these skills through your education, paid and volunteer roles, travel, and community activities.
Get involved
There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in activities, events, programs and services outside of the classroom. By engaging in student leadership programs, volunteering, paid work, student clubs and groups, you’ll develop new skills, make connections, and gain experience. It might even take you in a new career direction!
Explore on-campus opportunities like workshops and events, as well as volunteer and paid positions.
Access job and volunteer postings, and register for workshops and events.
Want to gain experience and earn money while studying? Consider applying to the co-op program.
Apply for on-campus volunteer and paid positions, participate in career and leadership development programs and workshops, and access your Co-Curricular Record.
Not-for-profit network by students for students. Find student unions, clubs and other resources and services.
Related Professional Associations
Professional associations are a valuable resource for occupational research, work search and building connections. They may offer career information, job boards, networking, mentorship, volunteer opportunities and additional resources. Attend events as a guest, or as a Student Member.
Resources
Take your career exploration one step further by doing more research into the fields you're interested in. Here are some organizations and resources to get started.