Her Story
About Karina
Karina Cabrera is a Senior Consultant at IBM in the organizational change management (OCM) space, where she focuses on process adoption within SAP projects. She has been with the company for 10 years, having joined right after college through a rotational program that led her to specialize in OCM and training. In her role, she works as a trusted advisor to executives on complex enterprise transformations, primarily S4 projects, helping with business strategy, communications, leadership alignment, organizational readiness assessments, and training strategies to support the people side of change. She holds an industry badge in utilities and WalkMe certifications. A first-generation college graduate whose parents were immigrants, she studied IT and communications at Florida State University. Karina attributes her success to mentors, the ability to thrive on ambiguity, emotional intelligence to read the room, and combining creativity with strategy. She values being human-centric by putting people and clients first, leading with integrity, and prioritizing progress over perfection. Outside of work, she is involved with Relay for Life due to her personal connection to cancer awareness.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Karina
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to mentors, thriving on ambiguity, emotional intelligence to read the room, and combining creativity with strategy to stand out.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Growth is really important. You're never going to be an expert in your level. You've always got to continue to be in that growth mindset.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Sometimes not knowing off the bat what you want to do in your career at first is unsettling, but it has a way of coming to you. Going into consulting has helped me build transferable skills to any industry. It's okay that I didn't immediately know what I wanted to do.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Challenges include learning how to work with AI to complement the work we do, understanding bias in AI and challenging its outputs, and dealing with change fatigue among employees adopting new technologies.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I am human-centric when it comes to my job, putting the people first and client first, leading with integrity, and valuing progress over perfection.
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