Matthias Karner

Digitalization & IT leader. Avid reader. Engineering PhD. Productivity enthusiast.

4 minute read

Career changes don’t happen in a single moment.

They start quietly. They start with a question you can’t ignore anymore. Mine began in 2025, long before I realized I was ready for something new.

But let me start at the beginning.

For a long time, I definitely belonged to the second group. | image | |:–:| | Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash |

After finishing my PhD in 2019, I stayed with my company and made a few internal career moves. I started in a staff position as digitalization manager without a team. Over time, I built a small team, and eventually I became head of the staff for IT, OT and digitalization.

In 2025, the Lean team was added to my department, and the function moved into the line organization. But 2025 was also a terrible year for the company (economically speaking) and heavy changes were coming. In the middle of this upheaval, my boss approached me and offered me a job at one of our sister companies.

At first, I didn’t want to leave my team or my company. I had enjoyed my job, and the people were a big part of that.

But: Would it still be the same after all the changes?

So I took a closer look at the new role. I met the team, read through the responsibilities and tried to picture myself in that environment. The job would be more focused (not as broad as my previous one) as I would be responsible for leading IT management.

It sounded intriguing. Different, but in a meaningful way.

After several conversations with my boss and my future boss, I decided to take the opportunity and move on.

With the decision made, I stepped into the transition phase. It was a period that turned out to be far more complex, surprising and also emotional than I initially thought.

Let me break it down into:

  • the spark
  • the decision and
  • the goodbye

The spark

I am curious. I’ve always been. This was one of the main traits I loved about my job: dealing with a lot of different topics. And in the realm of digital transformation and AI, new things are constantly emerging.

With the new job, this would be different. It would be more about managing established processes and less about working directly with innovative technology directly. However, I also saw a big learning opportunity: in the new role, the processes and setup would be different. Yet another chance to learn a new way of working and to take on a new type of responsibility.

That was the spark that ignited the whole transition.

And I was fortunate. My boss (and my future boss) offered me that I would be able to make a smooth transition into the new role. At first, I would be working 20% in the new role, then 40%, and one month before day X, I would be 60% in my new role. This is the benefit of making a job transition within a group.

The decision

I’m sure you’ve heard this before: it’s usually the things you don’t do that you regret the most.

If I hadn’t taken this opportunity, I know I would have asked myself sooner or later, “What if I had taken the job?” I didn’t want to live with that question.

Even if the new role turns out to be different from what I expect, at least I’ll know. I’ll have tried it. No guessing, no regrets.

That was the thought that finally got me towards the decision.

The goodbye

When I first became a leader, I thought the role was very different. I believed I had to know every detail of what my team was doing. I thought I needed the technical know‑how to do their jobs as well, or at least be able to jump in if someone was on vacation or sick. I honestly thought that’s what being in a management role meant. What leadership meant.

I was wrong.

Fortunately, I learned pretty quickly that as a leader (especially with a team of 5+) you simply cannot know everything. And you certainly cannot do everything yourself.

Doing great work is a team-job.

The leader’s job within the team is about removing obstacles, giving people the space and trust to do their work and most importantly creating an environment where they can grow. Thrive actually.

That’s what I tried to do.

Along the way, my former colleagues became a real team. And over time, they became friends. Together, we built an environment where people felt comfortable, motivated and happy to work.

That, however, makes saying goodbye much harder.

With my new role ahead of me, leaving the team was the hardest part of this transition. What helped me was having one final conversation with each team member. A chance to tell them what I appreciated most about them (once again) and to give them the space to share one last honest piece of feedback with me.

And now that’s the past already. On 01.04.2026, I stepped into my new role. And I’m genuinely grateful.

Grateful for the chance to learn something new, to grow into a different position, and to join a great team.

And I’m equally grateful that my old team found exciting new roles under leaders I trust to help them continue unfolding their potential.

Careers don’t unfold in straight lines. They unfold in the moments when we choose to change.

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