Table Of Contenti
Employing
Linguistics
ii
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iii
Employing
Linguistics
Thinking and Talking about Careers
for Linguists
ANNA MARIE TRESTER
iv
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2022
Copyright © Anna Marie Trester, 2022
Anna Marie Trester has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p. x constitute an extension
of this copyright page.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Trester, Anna Marie, author.
Title: Employing linguistics : thinking and talking about careers for linguists /
Anna Marie Trester.
Description: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifi ers: LCCN 2021037591 (print) | LCCN 2021037592 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781350137950 (hardback) | ISBN 9781350137967 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781350137981 (pdf) | ISBN 9781350137974 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Linguistics–Vocational guidance. |
Linguists. Classifi cation: LCC P60 .T74 2022 (print) | LCC P60 (ebook) |
DDC 410.23–dc23/eng/20211105
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021037591
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021037592
ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-3795-0
PB: 978-1-3501-3796-7
ePDF: 978-1-3501-3798-1
eBook: 978-1-3501-3797-4
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Contents
List of Figures vii
Preface: From Nebulous to Nebulae viii
Acknowledgments x
Introduction: Charting the Stars 1
About the Stories in This Book 6
If You Are Interested in a Linguistic Approach to Career, This Book Is
for You 8
Here’s Our Plan 10
1 Reckoning with Your Intentions 13
A Story from Me: Thanking John Rickford 30
A Catalyst for You: Finding Your Sparks 33
2 BRIGHTEN While You Work 37
B of BRIGHTEN: Business 39
R of BRIGHTEN: Research 44
I of BRIGHTEN: Innovation 45
G of BRIGHTEN: Government 46
H of BRIGHTEN: Healthcare Communication 49
T of BRIGHTEN: Technology 50
E of BRIGHTEN: Education 53
N of BRIGHTEN: Nonprofit 54
A Story from Me: “Why Don’t You Do an Ethnography?” 55
A Catalyst for You: Job Crafting 56
vi CONTENTS
3 HOW Linguists BRIGHTEN 59
Describe, Interpret, Evaluate (D.I.E. Rubric) 64
A Story from Me: The Work Interrogatives 85
A Catalyst for You: Be a User Researcher for Yourself 86
4 Decide to BRIGHTEN Here and Now 87
A Story from Me: Forensics Is Also about Poetry 89
A Catalyst for You: Some Practices for Being in the Now/Here 111
5 BRIGHTEN Around the World 115
The Dynamics of Policy Development 133
A Story and a Catalyst: STAR 137
6 Navigate Your Career with WHY 139
A Story from Me: Which Diss? 155
A Catalyst for You: Reflecting on your WHYs 157
Conclusion: Ending in the Middle 159
Appendices
Appendix 1: The Work Interrogatives 171
Appendix 2: Conversation with a Job Ad: The WHAT,
HOW, and WHY 173
Appendix 3: List of Stories in the Book 173
Notes 177
References 179
Index 185
Figures
1.1 Samantha Beaver LinkedIn post—client work 24
1.2 John Rickford—co-author of Spoken Soul 32
1.3 Russel Rickford—co-author of Spoken Soul 33
1.4 Anna Marie Big Bang sketch (author’s photograph) 35
3.1 Landing page of Abby Bajuniemi’s User Research
portfolio 62
3.2 Greg Bennett LinkedIn post about a conference
presentation 72
3.3 Greg Bennett LinkedIn post about a podcast 73
3.4 Eli Asikin-Garmager schematic: What we know and
how we learn 79
4.1 Now/Here campaign—Finnair. Developed by Head
of Finnair Holidays Kristiina Kukkohovi and Creative
Directors Antero Jokinen and Iina Merikallio 88
4.2 Serena Williams Map © OpenStreetMap
Contributors 104
5.1 STAR story model 137
6.1 Imagine UBI social media tile 155
viii
Preface: From
Nebulous to
Nebulae
S
tories are tools for noticing.
They help us notice.
The stories that we hear shape our sense of who we are and what
we can do.
First and foremost, this book has been created to share stories.
Linguists need to hear different—and different kinds of—career
stories. We need to hear about a broad range—a constellation!—
of contexts in which our skills and training may be employed. And
crucially, we need to hear more of them in the midst of their unfolding.
As I look around at the multifaceted and complex challenges facing
our world, I see both limitless potential and great need for the ways
linguists think, including an empirical orientation to change, the ability
to look below apparent chaos to reveal patterns, and the ability to see
and think in systems. When our community has a better picture of
the breadth of purposes and problems to which our linguistic skills
and training may be put—and gets a better sense for the universe of
possibilities—we will feel our value and dream big about our futures.
We will also come to recognize that feelings of uncertainty and
disorientation are not only normal, but to be expected when sparking
new connections.
In my own case, I came to this sense of abundance experientially.
I had the opportunity to learn about a breadth and range of possibilities
over the course of running a professionally oriented sociolinguistic
MA program for more than six years. I learned alongside and from my
students, and you will hear many of their stories over the course of
this book—especially in Chapter 2 —where I share the stories of ten
students, ten years after their graduation.
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ix
PREFACE ix
I am so grateful to the founder of that program, Dr. Deborah
Schiffrin, who encouraged me to apply for the director job, when I was
thinking instead only of jobs on the tenure track. I couldn’t see it at
the time, but her perspective and experience uniquely enabled her to
see what I brought to the position from my previous work experience
in the fi nancial sector, in broadcast journalism, and the nonprofi t
and arts sectors. When I was fi rst hired, she gave me as my fi rst
assignment the task of conducting fi fty informational interviews that
fi rst semester. Informational interviews—conversations with people
about the day-to-day of their work—would give me the context that
I needed to be able to show students the breadth and range of their
professional possibilities.
I’m certain that I did not make the target of 50 informational
interviews. What did happen, however, was that I sat down and
thought about everyone I knew or wanted to know (former colleagues,
linguistics department alum, my former and current classmates,
prospective students) and think about what questions I might like
to pose to them about their work. As I now know, one of the most
important things about an informational interview is that it places you
in a learning mindset, a growth mindset. It is itself an ask. It involves
making yourself slightly vulnerable to tell someone that you need
something from them. And when you engage with people in this
way, you build community and create opportunities. One of my fi rst
interviews was with an old boss at MacNeill Lehrer who offered me
an opportunity to do some consulting. One linguist who I spoke with
knew she was very happy in her professional life, but she wanted to
hear from me, from the fi fty others I had talked to—did she seem to
be the happiest?
I hope this book inspires you to get out there and start asking for
stories. And I hope you get to speak to many of the happiest linguists.
Listen to the stories for what ideas they spark for you. Because this
will build our community. This will create opportunity. Because the
world needs linguists.
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