[1] Before her academic career, Guasti worked in information technology, first as a researcher at Olivetti in Turin (1984–5) and then as a software developer for Fininvest in Milan (1985–7).
[1] From 1988 to 1994 Guasti worked as a research assistant at the University of Geneva, where she received her doctorate for a dissertation focusing on causatives and verbs of perception.
[1][2] Guasti's first academic job after her doctorate was as a researcher at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan (1994–7), where she began to combine her interest in linguistic theory with the study of language acquisition.
[1][2] After a period of postdoctoral research at the University of Siena (1997–2000), she was appointed assistant professor of linguistics and psycholinguistics at the University of Milano-Bicocca, where she was to spend the rest of her career; she was promoted to full professor in 2005.
[1] Guasti's research focuses on child language acquisition of syntax, semantics and pragmatics.