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An internship is a way to explore career options, network, and get work experience. The Career Development Center has hundreds of local internship listings. maintains a linguistics-specific internship registry. Also, some businesses and organizations that do not offer a formal internship program may be happy to accept you as an unpaid intern if you approach them and volunteer.

Linguistics students sometimes get discouraged that few internship ads specifically mention “linguistics”. Don’t limit yourself! Many businesses and organizations need people with intercultural knowledge, language skills, and data analysis skills. You can apply for internships in a wide range of fields, with a great cover letter explaining what you have to offer.

Below are a few organizations that offer linguistics-related internships or volunteer opportunities. Please note that the Linguistics Department cannot vouch for them; these links are provided just to get you started on your search.

Computational linguistics

• , a research institute of USC, offers paid summer internships in Playa Vista. Usually a few are linguistics-related.
• The Natural Language group at the , also part of USC, offers  in Marina Del Ray. Programming skills are a must.
• , a commercial spinoff of ISI, located east of Marina del Rey, sometimes offers internships.
• The at Johns Hopkins has research workshops, including paid undergraduate positions, most summers.
• Other internships sometimes pop up on the site.
• Lots of open software communities are interested in localization volunteers, such as , , and . This can be a first step for someone with language skills but limited computer skills.
• The sometimes offers part-time jobs in corpus development.
• One can occasionally find volunteer opportunities in corpus annotation, such as or .

Language documentation / revitalization

• The occasionally has openings in the
• (Massachusetts)

Miscellaneous Nonprofits

• (Massachusetts)
• (Indiana)
• (Boston)
• These nonprofits don’t specifically mention volunteer opportunities, but you could ask: , , , , , .

Translation / language specialists

There are numerous translation agencies in the L.A. area that you could approach for internships. Many agencies also hire freelancers.

•  (international)
•  (Los Angeles)
• (Santa Monica)
• (Boston)
• (Vancouver, Washington)
• (London)
• (Vancouver, WA)
• The and both offer mentoring programs.
• The  is building some kind of translation database, and recruits volunteers to work from home.
• The fund language study and study abroad.
• The recruits language specialists to collect and review linguistic data.
• Many community organizations need translation volunteers.

Language teaching

• offers summer teaching work.
• – Teaching assistant program in France application is now open for 2021-2022 academic year. Application deadline is January 15th, 2021. 

Government

Many government agencies offer internships for bilingual (and other) students, including:

• (apply 8-12 months in advance)
• (apply by November 15)

Academic research

• The (SROP) offers research internships at about a dozen universities for undergraduates from backgrounds under-represented in graduate education, including minority students, first-generation college students and students from low-income families.
• The National Science Foundation has a program called , where undergrads do paid internships on specific projects. Some years there may be linguistics projects. They would usually be in the category of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. Natural language processing projects would be in Computer and Information Science and Engineering.
• A number of universities offer other undergraduate summer research programs, including , , , , , and .
• The University of Maryland’s fund a year of post-B.A. (but pre-grad school) linguistics research.

A few university research labs offer their own internships programs, such as:

• The Harvard
• The Yale
• The Johns Hopkins
• The Temple
• The Hunter College
• The University of Texas
• The University of Pittsburgh’s

Other labs may also accept interns if you ask them. Here is a good description of how .

Branding

Examples of companies that offer internships in brand-name creation:

• (located in Chicago)
• (located abroad)

There are also quite a few marketing companies in the L.A. area that do brand-name development; you could approach any of them about internships.

Language policy

•  in Washington D.C. has interns work on a variety of projects.
• There are dozens, maybe hundreds of think tanks and institutes that focus on various areas of policy. A student interested in language policy issues (such as bilingual education or minority language rights) might intern at an organization like the , the , the , or the (which employs linguist ). A student with a more international focus might look at the , , , etc. These are just a sampling; you can find longer lists at other sites. Find an institute whose politics agree with your own, and explain in your application what you can offer them as a linguist.

Language Assessment

• (U.K. – company also has U.S. locations)

Publishing and writing

• A number of publishers offer internships, such as , , , , and .
• A number of tech companies, such as , have internships in technical writing. See also this .
• The Society for Technical Communication maintains a .