Infobytes: When did you graduate and with what degree?

Joshua: I graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics, and a minor in History 

Infobytes: Why did you choose Linguistics?

Joshua: I had always had a passion for languages and didn’t know exactly how to go about doing anything with that, then I stumbled on to the Linguistics program at UNT. I decided to take the intro to Linguistics course taught by Christina Sioux-Casey while she was a visiting professor at UNT and fell in love with morphology and semantics. After that it was pretty much set in stone for me that Linguistics was for me. 

Infobytes: What work have you done (are you doing) since graduating?

Joshua: After graduation I worked for a small translation agency as its Director of Business Development and Marketing, lead project manager, and sales manager. It was a very small company of about 5 employees. Then I moved on to SDL as a project manager for its small to medium business segment, SDL is the developer behind translation memory software, and it is the trusted software used by most translators and translation agencies globally, most of what I did was coordination between clients and translators, but I did get to proofread documentation in about 14 languages. Then I landed a job with a company that used Natural Language Generation and semantic coding to help train artificial intelligence systems. Working with a team of other linguists from around the country to generate and semantically tag data to allow computers to understand us better was one of the coolest things I have ever done, and it really inspired me to pursue computational linguistics. I am currently working for Texas Instruments, manufacturing semiconductors for use in a wide array of technologies, but I have also had the privilege of working with a medium stage machine learning software with them to help streamline manufacturing processes. 

Infobytes: How did your Linguistics degree prepare you for that?

Joshua: My degree helped me to understand how language works, different communication styles and cultural contexts. I was able to leverage my knowledge of languages to better help the clients that I worked with in the translation industry. Working with semantic and linguistic coding for AI allowed me to flex my linguistic muscles and really expand my understanding of linguistics and what we can do with it. Dr. Haj Ross really liked to tell us to learn how to learn and I don’t think I ever stopped doing that.

Infobytes: Why are you considering a graduate degree now?

Joshua: I had always intended to go for my master’s degree in Linguistics, and I feel like I am in a place where I can do that and continue working.