This month’s interview is with Shivonne Gates, who works at Frontline, a charity which aims to create social change by developing excellent social work practice and leadership. This interview is a great example of how one can conduct research and utilize mixed methods outside of academia, as Shivonne does on a daily basis in her role as an Impact Lead. You can follow Shivonne on Twitter (@ShivGates) and LinkedIn. You can hear more about Shivonne‘s academic work, and post-PhD career, in Lingthusiasm Episode 48: Who you are in high school, linguistically speaking.

What did you study at university? 

I have three degrees in linguistics! BA, MA and PhD. My undergrad was from the University of Sheffield, which gave me a really broad and varied grounding in lots of subfields of linguistics (sociolinguistics, phonetics, historical linguistics, language acquisition, dialectology, syntax, stylistics... all the good stuff!). I then focused in on sociolinguistics during my MA at North Carolina State University which was a great springboard into my PhD at Queen Mary University of London where my thesis explored linguistic variation and ethnic identity among adolescents in East London. What is your job? 

In my new job as Impact Lead for Frontline, I am designing and delivering a programme of research focused on demonstrating the longer-term outcomes and impacts of the Frontline social work training programme. Essentially, Frontline wants to know how effective their programme is at training top-notch social workers, and as a result how this programme leads to better outcomes for the children and families supported by these social workers.

How does your linguistics training help you in your job? 

In lots of ways! From a practical research skills perspective, my training in sociolinguistics was a helpful stepping stone into mixed methods social research. For example, for sociolinguistic interviews we use question modules, which is very similar to a discussion/topic guide used for in-depth qualitative interviews. And my understanding of inferential statistical modelling has been helpful in being able to pick up impact evaluation methodologies quickly. I also got lots of transferrable skills: I am now an excellent writer and not daunted by producing research reports - they feel like a walk in the park compared with a PhD thesis! I also think conference and teaching experience were really helpful in honing my skills in synthesising complex information, public speaking, and working with and supporting junior staff.

What was the transition from university to work like for you? 

Honestly, it was quite difficult. My first job after my PhD was as a social researcher at the National Centre for Social Research. Because I was no longer directly doing linguistics in my job, I really missed it (and still do). I also found the transition from working on my own research to working on a team led by someone else quite hard (although I did love the support of working on a team!). I also found it hard not having the time to dive deep into research in the way you do in academia, as I was across multiple projects and had much tighter deadlines than you do in academia. But, once I adjusted, I actually really enjoyed the pace, loved how much I learned in such a short space of time and thrived working across lots of different projects within a broad policy area.

Do you have any advice do you wish someone had given to you about linguistics/careers/university?

I wish I had known how much of a financial undertaking it is to do a PhD! Even though I was funded, I feel I'm still playing catch up financially from having four years in my 20s when I wasn't earning very much money. I also received some advice that I wish I had ignored: that it is good to move around for your degrees. Yes, it can be a good way to broaden your training, but it's not a dealbreaker for academic jobs and staying in one place might have given me more stability (and therefore headspace and better mental health) which really helps with managing the stress of a PhD. I also wish someone had warned me about how emotionally invested you become in your thesis, which makes it really difficult to deal with days/weeks that don't go as you intended. I coped well with my BA and MA, so the emotional and mental health challenges that came up for me during my PhD took me by surprise. Get a therapist! Any other thoughts or comments? 

Doing a PhD was on the whole a really fulfilling experience, and I don't regret doing one. But ultimately I could do my current job without one. I guess I kind of wish I'd known about social research careers as an undergrad: I went into my MA and PhD with the goal of being a researcher, I had no idea I could do research as a career outside of academia until the second or third year of my PhD. 

Related interviews:

Interview with an Associate at the Children’s Center for Communication, Beverly School for the Deaf

Interview with a think tank researcher

Interview with a data scientist

Recent interviews:

Interview with an Online Linguistics Teacher

Interview with an Academic Linguist

Interview with a TV Writer

Interview with a Senior Analyst, Strategic Insights & Analytics

Interview with a Social Media Lead

Interview with a CEO of a SaaS company

Interview with a Communications and Engagement Assistant

Resources:

The full Linguist Jobs Interview List

The Linguist Jobs tag for the most recent interviews

The Linguistics Jobs slide deck (overview, resources and activities)