In this month’s linguistics job interview Amelia Violet provides a great illustration of how students in STEM pathways can benefit from skills learnt in the arts and humanities. I’m glad there’s at least one engineer out there who knows the semantic implications different English modal verbs!
What did you study at university?
I
studied a double degree of Mechanical Engineering and Arts, majoring in
Linguistics. My areas of focus for linguistics was syntax and
semantics, with a focus on the grammar of English.
What is your job?
As
a standards engineer, I develop and maintain the standard documents and
drawings that my company uses for construction projects. Each day will
involve reviewing feedback from the rest of the business, checking our
documentation, and proposing changes in order to improve our work to
make it safer, work better, or save money in construction. If those
changes are approved, I will develop the exact language to achieve the
desired end goal, and publish a new document.
For
example, in standard documentation, the difference between a “shall” or
a “should” is hugely important, and can have legal ramifications if not
interpreted and adhered to correctly. I need to ensure a paragraph on
the minimum requirements for say, a particular pipe, is clear and easy
to interpret - I work hard to remove accidental syntactic ambiguity, as
it can have serious, real world ramifications.
How does your linguistics training help you in your job?
I
never expected it to help, but as mentioned in the above question, part
of my work involves ensuring our documents are clear and unambiguous. A
strong syntactic understanding of English has both improved my ability
to find problems, but also have technical understanding of how to
structure phrases for clarity of meaning. Interpreting and writing standard documentation often requires treating language like a series of semantic logic puzzles.
Do you have any advice do you wish someone had given to you about linguistics/careers/university?
I
wish I had been told just how much my arts degree would develop soft
skills that I could use to help sell myself and get a job in
engineering. I initially studied linguistics for fun, to break the
monotony of constant maths in my other degree. I had no intention of
trying to get a job utilising my linguistics studies. However, as I went
through job applications trying to break into the industry, I was
frequently complimented on my writing ability, and fielded questions
about majoring in linguistics in many interviews from curious potential
employers.
While I have an engineering
role now, I do far more report writing than complicated mathematics,
which was an almost neglected skill during my actual engineering degree.
Instead, my ability to write reports, conduct research for design
changes, and communicate clearly with the rest of the business, all came
from skills developed while studying linguistics and philosophy, my
minor.
Any other thoughts or comments?
Whatever
the reason you have for studying linguistics, you will pick up
something that will benefit other parts of your life - perhaps not now,
but one day in the future. You never know what kind of work you may take
on, and what skills will become relevant! Plus, it’s always reliable
for fun dinner table conversations!
