Judith Y. Kim

I attribute my success to my parents, easily. I have a younger brother, and I've watched my father, who's a banker, and how he's been the boss and his style of leadership. I feel like I mimic that a lot. And definitely the thoughtfulness of my mother. She's super thoughtful, I mean, to a point where it's a little overbearing. There's a phrase for it in Korean, like she just says a lot. I guess another translation for it could be kind of like nagging, but it comes from a good place. She's gonna be right, so I should listen. My parents have really shaped who I am as a leader and how I approach my work.

The best career advice I've received, and the one that has really worked for me, is pick your boss, not the job. After the Baltimore Sun, I got a compliment during that 6 months in between contract from my boss there. He said good work, and I felt myself getting emotional, because I haven't even heard that for my time at the Sun. So I took my time finding the spot I have now. I mean, I've interviewed to the final stages for many places before, like other papers, and I was just very much more choosy, because I also didn't vacation when I was at the Sun, so I had all this money saved for me to be choosy. But I'm glad I got to live out that advice to pick my boss.

Don't be afraid to fail. I've noticed a stark contrast with girls and guys, I would say, or women, young women and men. Girls have really strong perfectionist tendencies, and they really beat themselves up over it. I cannot emphasize it too much - just like, you get up, you scrape your knees, hey, we work in news. Tomorrow, it'll be totally different. I mean, seriously, like, in the next hour. The point is that the bounce back is everything, so don't be scared of messing up, because you will. Like, you will mess up, but the idea is you have to hone your craft, and you can only do it by putting yourself out there and trying. And the thing is, when they file things, it is better than what the guys will file sometimes. I just encourage them to get back up. The next one will be better. You get better just by doing it every day, over and over again.

The biggest challenge, at least when you're starting out, is not to feel discouraged, because it is about someone taking a chance on you in many ways. I mean, now that I'm in the position I have now, I've seen the internal dialogues, like, oh, she's too green, we don't know how it would work. So even if you don't have anything yet, still try to volunteer or put out articles in a local newspaper. That's a good way to show that you are putting yourself out there and you have examples of your work. Just don't be discouraged to start out. I think you have to try it at every level. When young journalists talk to me, it's like, I want to be in New York City and the much bigger markets. At least for me, it's like, you have to start small. I forget the population of Columbus, Georgia, but it was really little. It's a better way to also get into it, because it's lower stakes. It's also a very big people industry. Your reputation will follow you if you have a big mess-up, a big screw-up. We all know the journalists who really messed up, and they can't get back in. So it's better to start off small and not get discouraged by that.

I would say competence, efficiency, or ownership, maybe. At least for journalism, being able to admit when you made a mistake is really important. It's funny, because I'm an impatient person, period, but for what I do, I've had to really pull that in and exercise as much patience as possible when helping reporters grow or become better or stronger. For example, I am working with a reporter I endearingly call my baby reporter, because she's 22. I literally hired her out of college. She would get emotional when she thought she was failing me, and part of me is like, yeah, this is taking a while, like getting a story or a video produced out, but I also saw potential in her, so it's better for me to be patient. I think that's been a big value for me, just to go along with the journey, so to speak.