Career in linguistics: Skills, scope, and expert advice from an IIT-ian

Language is everywhere -- from the way we chat with others by voice or text to how AI assistants understand our voices, linguistics is at the heart of it all. Field research and data collection: Linguists often work with real-world language data, whether it’s dialect studies or AI-driven translation projects. Dr Manujata Gupta breaks down some major areas: If you love working with sounds, this could be for you Syntax and morphology: This is ideal for those who enjoy working on complex sentence structures This is ideal for those who enjoy working on complex sentence structures Psycholinguistics: Studies how we process and acquire language Studies how we process and acquire language Sociolinguistics: This explores the interaction between language, dialects, culture and society This explores the interaction between language, dialects, culture and society Computational linguistics: This is a blend of AI, data science, and language This is a blend of AI, data science, and language Forensic linguistics: This uses linguistic expertise to solve crimes and analyse legal cases CHALLENGES LINGUISTS FACE Like any field, linguistics comes with its own set of challenges. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING LINGUISTS "The opportunities in the field of linguistics are booming due to digitalisation," says Dr Manujata Gupta. "Along with the regular education in linguistics, students must upgrade their skills through extra certifications in field survey, language documentation, AI, computational tools, etc."