Jess Göbel

Why did you study Linguistics at Queen Mary? Did you have a particular career path in mind?

I studied at QMUL for multiple reasons. I had read multiple papers by the staff in the department, such as Devyani Sharma, Sophie Holmes-Elliott, Kathleen McCarthy, and Esther de Leeuw, and these professors’ research interests in bilingualism, phonetics, and sociolinguistics is what drew me to the department. Furthermore, courses in gender and language and bilingualism were advertised on the website and these interested me.

What topics did you like learning about and was there anything that surprised you in your studies?

I enjoyed learning about bilingualism, sociophonetics, and gender and language the most.

Can you describe your career path to date and touch on your current role? How did you arrive in your current role?

During my MA at Queen Mary, I got accepted to do my PhD in Linguistics at NYU. I’ve now been at NYU doing my PhD for the past year and a half. I knew that I wanted to apply for PhD programs before I started my MA, so I was thrilled that I got an offer.

How do you describe the skills and knowledge you gained during your Linguistics degree to your employers?

I describe my skills in coding in R and LaTeX. I am also proficient in using speech annotation software such as Praat and ELAN.

Can you describe what a typical working day looks like for you?

I currently working on my first qualifying paper for my PhD. Right now, I am recording audio stimuli of different accents to use in an experiment on development sociolinguistics. I am also working as a teaching assistant for an undergraduate course in sociolinguistics, which means that I teach and grade students’ homework.

What are your career plans for the future/Are you looking to expand your skill set in anything?

In the future, I would like to have a career in academia.

How did your degree prepare you for your current job role? Which skills that you developed during your degree have you brought to your current job?

My degree at QMUL really prepared me for my PhD because the classes I took (especially in bilingualism) gave me a good understanding of the literature in the field. Additionally, conducting my own research for my MA thesis was a good preparation for my PhD, since I conduct independent research during my degree.

Is there any advice you would give to current students or recent graduates considering their career options?

If I was to give advice to students who are interested in doing a PhD, my advice would be to read a lot of studies and talk to their lecturers about their career goals. I would also tell students interested in doing a PhD that they should be sure that they are passionate about doing research, since taking classes is a relatively small part of my PhD in the USA.

What was special about your time at Queen Mary? Can you give one or two examples of your most memorable moments?

I really enjoyed the process of writing my dissertation with Kathleen McCarthy as my supervisor. She was so passionate about the project that it was incredible easy to stay excited about my work throughout the writing phase and then even writing it up together for a conference paper after I’d graduated.

Another memorable moment was all of the support I got on my PhD application from Queen Mary staff, particularly Devyani, Hazel, Kathleen, Chris, and Colleen. I feel like the department really came together and helped me write the best application I could, and everyone gave really useful advice, even people who I hadn’t even met in person at that point. I remember feeling incredibly supported and like everyone in the department wanted me to do my best.