Linguistic Enterprises is inaugurating a mentoring program (Linguistic Mentorprises) to bring together linguists who are employed in the private sector with those who would like to be. Very often, the greatest obstacle to establishing a career outside of academia is simply not knowing how to get started. In the Enterprises workshops at LSA annual meetings, speakers have told how it happened to them--how they created or found or got drawn into an interesting career which makes use of their training in linguistics and which also pays the rent. The goal of the mentoring program is to extend this sharing of experience about professional opportunities and pitfalls into a self-sustaining year-round source of support for young linguists until they are established in their careers--and then they can assist others along the same track.
Linguistic Enterprises is looking for volunteers to become founding members of this new endeavor. If you feel you can't at the moment be a mentor, please consider adding your name (with a brief statement of your experience) to the Linguistic Enterprises 'Panel of Experts', people who can be contacted by any linguist in need of information or advice on particular points that arise in planning for a nonacademic career. Whether or not you can participate at present, please encourage friends and colleagues you think would make good mentors to take part.
To add yourself to the 'Panel of Experts'. Send an email message with your name, email address, and your area(s) of interest and work experience to: susskind@frontiernet.net.
To become a mentor. Send an email message with your name, email address, area(s) of interest and work experience, and the number of individuals you would be willing to mentor to: susskind@frontiernet.net.
How it works. Mentor-mentee pairs will be established via the Linguistic Enterprises website through a page dedicated to the mentoring program: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/linguistics/enter/index.htm (also accessible through the LSA website, http://www.lsadc.org) . This page will feature a list of people who have volunteered to be mentors, along with the information indicated above. A linguist who would like a mentor checks the list for someone with related interests and sends an email to the potential mentor. If both then agree to proceed, they notify the Linguistic Enterprises team, which from then on drops out of the planning--though the team would very much like to hear from mentor-mentee pairs every now and then to know how things are going.
Advice or suggestions concerning the Linguistic Mentorprises program, or other ways to fortify Linguistic Enterprises in general, should be directed to: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/linguists/enter/index.htm.