Like many other majors offered in colleges and universities, Linguistics (as a field of study) is not a direct path to a specific career in the way that say a major in Accounting or Electrical Engineering might be considered. People who choose to study linguistics often do so with the intention of going into a specific career path, such as work in law, psychology, computer and information science, anthropology and sociology, to name a few fields and professions where linguistic training is particularly applicable. Many majors opt for a career in teaching, especially teaching a language to non-native speakers either here in the United States or in other countries (see "Teaching Abroad").
The Linguist List has put together a helpful and detailed FAQ on linguistics as a career. Additionally, several linguistic programs in the US and in other countries as well as university career centers have put together excellent discussions in answer to the question:
What can I do with a major in Linguistics?
Check out this small sampling:
- The College of William and Mary - Dept of Linguistics (with an article from Anthropology News)
- The University of California at Riverside - Career Center
- The University of Georgia - Career Center
- The University of Melbourne (Australia) - Dept of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
If you still want more information, try your own search using one of these search engines: