Qualifications
Brutal truth? You can't get hired as a linguist without a college degree, and you're lucky if you get anything decent right out of school unless you've proven yourself in grad school. A doctorate wouldn't hurt, either. If you can write a thesis, the folks handing out jobs will know that you can do research and see a problem through to the very end (source). Okay, so far we have degrees, research skills, and writing chops. What else?
- Communication skills. These are more important in this field than most. Not only do you have to communicate with the people you work with, but you have to express ideas about the expression of ideas. Still with us? Good.
- Creativity. Linguistics is the study of how language affects the way we can communicate and vice versa. Under that umbrella, there's a variety of pretty abstract stuff going on. If you're trying to problem-solve, you'd better be open to some unconventional solutions.
- Experience traveling. This is a huge benefit. You want to have a good understanding of how people from different cultures think and communicate.
- Knowledge of multiple languages. You'll need to speak two at the very least.