The Linguistics Outside Academia Special Interest Group of the Linguistics Society of America presents:

Linguistics Career Mixer
Saturday, 7 January, Meeting Room 306, 3:30 – 5:00 PM
Organizers: Laurel Sutton (Catchword Branding), Anastasia Nylund (Georgetown University)

What: The Linguistics Career Mixer is an annual event that brings linguists who have found professional expression of their skills and training in a variety of fields — from research and consulting to writing and education — together with people who are currently trying to learn about their next steps professionally. The idea is to create a context for having exploratory conversations about career paths. Linguists who have found employment in a range of contexts will be on hand to talk about their work as researchers, consultants, writers, editors, trainers, managers, and language and communication specialists in government, education, business and non-profit sectors
(among others). Representatives from 20+ organizations will be in attendance, including the FrameWorks Institute, Georgetown University, the Center for Applied Linguistics, and Catchword Branding just to name a few.

How: The event is designed to be informal, conversational and as a context for learning.

Why: Because the world of work needs our skills and training, but this requires learning ways of talking about skills and training in linguistics that will make sense to those who we would wish to hire us. Networking is key to learning about some of the paths available, to getting feedback on our professional self-presentation, and to meeting the people who can continue to help guide and support us along the way.

Anyone who is interested in being radically curious about career is most welcome to participate including students at all stages of their educational and professional development, professors, grads and any and all careerminded linguists.

How: Participants will draw a handful of questions from a bowl at the door to start them off on the right conversational foot with a few structured ways of talking about work with “career linguists” (those who have found careers outside of academia). Those wearing a
“Career Linguist” name tag indicate that they have come ready to be asked questions and to share their experiences.

The focus is on exploration and networking. Attendees are encouraged to bring business cards and questions for specific participants, and to keep in mind that the Mixer is not designed to be a job fair, but instead an opportunity for conversation. The organizers will also collect suggestions from attendees on what type of events and resources they would like to see from the SIG in the coming year.