Success Spotlight
WESTWOOD COLLEGE - A PLACE WHERE I COULD SUCCEED
by
Steve Wiideman, President and Co-Founder of CorporateSEM.com
Westwood College 2004 Graduate: E-Business Management Program
After watching my parents live through unfulfilling careers, it was apparent that for one to succeed they must find a market that will predictably become high in demand and scarce in resources and become the best in the world at that particular skill set. When I received the postcard for Westwood College, enrolling in E-Business Management seemed like the obvious path. Thanks to the business and technology principles I learned at Westwood coupled with the character growth I achieved from the brilliant, thought-proving instructors, today I'm the president of a fast-growing Search Engine Marketing firm in Calabasas, California. I'm Steve Wiideman and this is my story.
When you're young, it's easy to be perceived as over-ambitious and inexperienced, regardless of whether or not those traits truly exist. At age 25, I was making substantially more than my peers working for a well-known Fortune 100 Technology company; all thanks to several years of hard work and sacrifice. However, without a degree, it was difficult to move up in the organization. Westwood's postcard couldn't have arrived at a better time.
How my wife put up with my 45 hour work weeks on top of my 20+ hour school weeks, I'll never know. My untiring dedication to a dream of success and support from my family helped me through my time in college. The result was a great GPA, greater confidence, and a dozen new friends I still keep in contact with.
I learned more by helping other students than I did just reading the textbooks. I spent as much time as I could on breaks, before class, and sometimes even after class, helping fellow students and picking the brains of the brilliant teachers at Westwood.
I would pride myself on going overboard on projects. I'd do from scratch things that could be done from templates or cut/paste from the Internet. I used the Internet not to search for answers, but to find more questions to have answers for. My final exam in HTML class was to assemble a 5 page website with examples of different syntax; I turned in an entire HTML Guide handwritten in notepad.
My first interview after graduation was a "group interview" at a company that produces the software for many College Sports, MLB, and general venue online and offline ticketing. Had it not been for the interview training I received at Westwood, I may not have earned this dream dotcom position.
The Anaheim Westwood instructors were so pleased with all I had achieved and all I had done for fellow students and for small businesses while I was attending college, that they nominated me for the 2006 CCA GREAT Award. With the help of a well-written essay, I was off to Washington DC with my family to accept the award just days after receiving a special Congressional Recognition Award from Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. This, by far, was my most memorable achievement.
The same year, I released an eBook on Search Engine Optimization that has had several thousand downloads since its release date.
The career opportunities didn't stop there. In fact, I became so proficient at what I do, that I was picked up by another major Fortune 100 company in a role I had wanted to achieve since day one at Westwood College. It was here that I truly mastered my skills as a Search Engine Marketing Expert.
Today, I'm 31 and the president of a fast-growing dotcom firm in Los Angeles, CorporateSEM.com. The people I've hired are the best in the industry at Search Engine Marketing. Westwood taught me to be a leader of leaders, and it's paid off. I went from undervalued, to extremely valued, in an industry that's just beginning to peak. Had I not received that postcard from Westwood College, I might still be employed at the same place I had been at before starting school, working 9-5 for someone else's dream, and with little job security.
Westwood College made my entrepreneur dreams a reality by teaching me to learn efficiently, keep up with technology, network with industry experts (learn from the best), and to lead by example. My family is thankful for the opportunity Westwood gave us at a better life now. My parents are thankful that I have a job I truly love. Thank you Westwood College!
Students, Teachers, and those considering enrolling Westwood, please feel free to contact me directly to learn how I got the most out of college, prepared for interviews, and achieved my dream career. I can be reached at 714-321-4062 or by visiting my company's newly launched search engine marketing website, CorporateSEM.com.
