Bill Dwoinen ’04 returned to Illinois State University the first time in 15 years to discuss his varied career path and give advice to current political science and legal studies students in Professor Nancy Lind’s professional development class. Dwoinen talked to students about finding their passion first and then looking for a job that matched their passion and to be prepared to change careers many times within a lifetime.

Three adults standing for picture

Left to right: TY Wang, Bill Dwoinen ’04 and Nancy Lind

After graduation from Illinois State, Dwoinen accepted a job with the Chicago Board of Trade where he stayed for nine years.  After that he moved to CareerBuilder, where he worked in primarily a sales position.  He indicated that this was an odd move for him because he was shy and didn’t like to speak in public. He found, however, that he could meet the challenge and enjoyed every minute of the job. After seven promotions at CareerBuilder, Dwoinen moved to LinkedIn where he is currently in a leadership role as manager for solutions key accounts, North America.  He told students that he is ‘living a dream’ but it was all based on having a strong work ethic and surrounding himself with positive people.  His degree in Political Science got him in the door but his work ethic and reliability and passion keep him there.