European (para-)academic job search

February 13, 2014 8:59 PM

I'm finishing a Ph.D. in linguistics and am considering looking for a job in Europe, either in the academy or in a related sector such as education, language instruction, academic publishing, etc. What other fields should I be thinking about? And where are such jobs advertised?

My fields of expertise are linguistics and classics. I would like to find either an academic position in one of these fields, or else a job in e.g. language teaching, English composition teaching, editing, publishing, etc. There are doubtless other fields I haven't thought of where my skills could come in useful -- what might they be? (I don't have any programming skills, unfortunately.) What are some job sites I should be searching? I know about jobs.ac.uk, academicjobsonline.org, academictransfer.com, higheredjobs.com, chronicle.com/jobs, Linguist List... What are some (other) sites where European jobs of this sort get posted? Countries I would consider moving to include the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Italy. I don't have EU citizenship.

posted by zeri to Work & Money (4 answers total)

Do you consider lexicography to be within the field of language instruction? There's a tiny amount of interesting work in that.

Also, can we be friends or enemies? That's exactly my background.
posted by xueexueg at 11:16 PM on February 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

Without EU citizenship, I'd think your best bet is finding a postdoc in one of those countries.

Here is a link to Stanford's linguistics department's list of non-US postdoc fellowship opportunities.

You may be able to qualify for an EU blue card if you get a job, so look into that.
posted by melissasaurus at 7:23 AM on February 14, 2014

The Humanist listserv, run out of King's College London, often has classics/linguist PhD seeking research jobs come up on it. Most tend to require at least a basic Digital Humanities skillset, though. Could it be worth your while picking up some DH skills, do you think?
posted by Sonny Jim at 9:44 AM on February 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

I seriously doubt you're going to be able to qualify for "highly skilled migrant" status. Companies have to show that they could not fill the position with a European candidate.

You might consider self-employment in The Netherlands using the Dutch American Friendship Treaty.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:57 AM on February 14, 2014