<p>I am a Linguistics major/Spanish minor graduating in December of this year. For several years now I've been trying to figure out a grad program related to Linguistics somehow that will likely lead to a stable career, but I'm still coming up short.</p>
<p>I originally wanted to do a Ph.D. in theoretical linguistics, but I've realized this is horribly impractical. I want to wait until I have a steady career going before I invest in something like this. I've heard of applied linguistics, but I can't really get any straight answer as to what this is and what jobs you get with a degree in it. I considered Speech-Language Pathology, but decided that this career wasn't for me. ESL/TESOL sounds like it might be something I'd like, but I've heard the job market is tight because of budget cutbacks and because schools only hire one teacher each. Computational linguistics sounds possible, though I have no real background in computers (I'm a social science/humanities person.) I am almost-fluent in Spanish, though I don't think translation or interpretation alone is enough to make a full living.</p>
<p>I like the idea of being on the theoretical/research end of second language pedagogy, but I don't know if many jobs are available in such a field. Would this be as tight a market as any other in academia? I really like the idea of being a "pen-and-paper theoretician", if only I could find a field that isn't too abstruse or hard to break into.</p>