Finding Inspiration from Failure
Three years after embarking on a junior class project, a recent SDSU grad drew on his tenacity, skills and education to complete the implementation of Salesforce for a local nonprofit organization and turned it into a career-defining experience.
By Suzanne Finch
Dillon Kidwell, a two-time graduate of San Diego State University’s Fowler College of Business (’19, management information systems, ’22, MSIS) was sitting in his information systems analysis (MIS 306) class in the spring of 2018, when the instructor asked for a volunteer for a summer intern project in helping a local nonprofit organization implement Salesforce as their primary customer relationship management system. Kidwell put his hand up, even though he had no prior experience with the cloud-based software technology.
This simple act would change his life and alter the course of his career.
Kidwell worked with Dreams for Change, whose mission is to support underserved community members by offering them paths to financial and housing stability through a variety of programs and classes. The organization’s case managers wanted to use Salesforce to track the activities and progress of the families and individuals they were serving.
“This project was my first exposure working with a company to provide real world value,” said Kidwell, then an SDSU junior. “My first meeting with their team was uncomfortable because I’d had no prior experience with systems analysis or even running a business meeting. This project taught me how to adapt quickly and gain skills that proved valuable during my job search.”
To understand the software and its implementation, Kidwell used Salesforce’s self-guiding training platform as he attempted to integrate the software into Dreams for Change’s operating system by the end of his internship. But that didn’t happen.
While things didn’t go the way Kidwell had hoped, the experience gave him proficiency as a Salesforce administrator and a new-found career path. Barely a year later, Kidwell began a new job as a full-time junior Salesforce business analyst at a local financial institution. Around the same time, he enrolled as an MSIS student in SDSU’s Fowler College of Business.
To fulfill the requirements of his MSIS degree program, Kidwell needed to complete a capstone project (BA 795). He returned to Dreams of Change to reimplement Salesforce, but this time, he was armed with the experience and knowledge he’d gained over the two previous years. The outcome: same client, different results.
Kidwell offers these words of wisdom to current SDSU students:
1. Spend a few hours everyday learning a marketable skill or pushing your comfort zone so you can grow.
2. Keep track of how your actions added value in your company/club/organization. This gives you a nice list of personal accomplishments.
“By the end of the semester, I was able to complete the design of their Salesforce application to satisfy all their desired requirements,” said Kidwell. “I will continue to work with them through the spring of 2023 to facilitate training their personnel and to complete the digital transformation process.”
Kidwell finished his project with Dreams of Change shortly before completing his MSIS degree in December 2022, but the impact of that summer internship and SDSU class project still affect his life and career. The real-world experience he gained propelled him into a position as a senior Salesforce administrator and deployment manager at National Funding, a San Diego-based small business lender. He is now working toward earning his Salesforce certifications that will qualify him for leadership positions.
But the lessons learned during his internship and class project weren’t all he learned during his SDSU experience.
“SDSU has done an incredible job at making sure their students have hands-on experience, are comfortable working and communicating with others, and have the necessary skills to get a foot in the door at many companies after graduation.,” said Kidwell. “I gained all of this experience while I was at SDSU and all of it plays a role in my professional success today.”
