Few people in tech have not heard of the name Kara Swisher, who is infamous for her journalistic prowess across the tech industry — keen on sussing out all things digital and not afraid to call out big shot CEOs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg on their BS.

From my two personal encounters with Kara, I could tell she possessed a self-assured, no-nonsense attitude. Her blunt confidence was refreshing and inspiring to me, an early-in-career whose immigrant parents propelled the Asian model minority narrative of keeping one’s head down and not questioning authority.

And so — after 11 follow up emails over the span of 4 months — we finally hopped on a call to chat about her career journey… Fun fact: she started our call with “I don’t have a lot of time because of all this Kamala Harris stuff going on,” so I dove straight into my questions and typed as fast as I could while she succinctly answered my questions 😅

I hope you all enjoy my favourite quotes and key takeaways from our conversation below!

I don’t make mistakes. I just go another way and if that doesn’t work then I change it.

kara swisher on career mistakes

Kara describes her career as super broad and unintentional. Most things simply happened, and she just went with it. She started her career thinking she would go into the military but couldn’t because she was gay. Then she shifted her path and lucked out with opportunities to explore a career in journalism. She built on these opportunities and constantly changed paths whenever she felt stuck.

She believes that most risks are worth taking, and you don’t even have to be calculating. Too many people are stuck thinking about change instead of actually doing something about it. Just assume that things will work out for you and hope for the best. If you’re not happy with what you’re doing, then go try something different… If that doesn’t work out, then go try something different again. Just take risks and embrace change… it’s not that hard.

You don’t need people to take you seriously. You just need to like yourself.

kara swisher on personal branding

When making career decisions, do whatever you want and like… ’cause who cares what other people think? If you don’t like something, then simply stop doing it. Unlike a good number of people, Kara actually enjoys what she does with her time and energy and is adamant about not doing anything she doesn’t like or doesn’t want to do.

Even as her name rose in prominence over the years, she didn’t think about her personal brand or what people would think of her — she was simply interested in doing substantive work. She believes that “career excellence” is obvious… You know when you put out good work, and people can tell what good work looks like.

Do your work well. A lot of people do a crappy job and wonder why they’re not successful.

kara swisher on career excellence

Persistence is key to career excellence. Figure out what your skills are and strive to be excellent. Don’t worry about failing, don’t even think about failing. Don’t fear rejection, just move along to the next thing. It’s important to listen to your own voice and the people you trust, but you don’t really need to take in too much advice… If you like it or feel bored and want a challenge, then just go for it!

When it comes to time management, Kara says that work and life are all integrated. Everything can always be integrated. Have a schedule, know what you need to do, and prioritize your time based on what is worth your time.

Lack of agony is always a good choice.

kara swisher on career decisions

Figure out what you like. You know what you like to eat, so why shouldn’t you know what you like to do? Life is too short to be agonizing over how rich or successful you’re going to be. Just do it — whatever it is. You have a lot of choices if you have an education, so stop pretending that you don’t have choices!

Many early-in-careers are always worried about their next step, but Kara says you don’t miss that many turns in life. Don’t be reticent… Instinctually, you know what you need to do. Fail fast and then move along. If something isn’t working for you, then leave. If you hate your job, don’t be afraid to leave it even if you just started a few months ago. Your time and energy are way too valuable to be staying in a shitty place.

Find out who you vibe with and just ask.

kara swisher on mentorship

Education is important, and you should always be pursuing it, but mentors are also critical to career growth. You will need different kinds of mentors depending on the area of expertise that you want to focus on — all you need to do is ask. So what if you get rejected? People are busy and it’s not personal… just keep asking or move along to the next person. When networking, just be normal. Don’t be stiff. Feel free to ask your questions because no one is really going to mind what you say at the end of the day.

Thanks for reading!

I’d like to thank Kara for showing up unapologetically as herself and sharing her career journey and advice with us. One of my favourite memories of Kara was when she insisted on going overtime with her fireside chat because she wanted to make sure that if a man had the opportunity to ask her a question, a woman would also get an opportunity to ask her a question. I found her — and our conversation — intimidating, but refreshing nonetheless!

You can learn more about Kara on Threads or checking out her her podcast On With Kara Swisher and latest book Burn Book: A Tech Love Story.