[ddj] Computational linguistics careers?

Tue Oct 23 15:44:45 UTC 2012

On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 4:09 AM, Lilly Schwarz
<lillyschwarzathome at gmail.com> wrote:
> Esteemed listers,
>
>
> I have a student who has shown some promise in computational linguistics but
> is hesitant about the field. She seems very anti-military, and as a
> statistician, I'm having a tough time thinking of non-intel career paths she
> might choose. I'd love to hear your ideas.
>
> As much as I'd like to say that CAR is a huge growth area, I'd prefer to
> have something a bit less uncertain to give her as a backup. I assume I only
> have one strong chance to pitch this path before she discards the idea, so I
> want to get it right.
>
> Any suggestions? Thanks!
>
> Best,
>
> Lilly

My recommendation is: network, network, network! Both of you should
talk to the hundreds of people who are doing computational linguistics
for a living in places like Google, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM,
the health care industry. etc. Search / social media is the biggest
industry user of computational linguistics right now, but health care
is coming on strong. Both of you should be on Twitter and LinkedIn.
There are probably a dozen LinkedIn groups on various phases of
computational linguistics. Bottom line: meet as many people as
possible who are getting paid (and handsomely, I might add) to do
computational linguistics. It's most decidedly *not* just "the
military-industrial complex" and computer-assisted reporting.
>
>
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