Career Journey with Andrea Twedell
Meet Andrea Twedell (she/her/hers), Senior Manager, Lenovo – Client Solutions at CDW! After earning her MBA and working at several Fortune 200 companies, Andrea took the first step in her career journey with CDW as a Senior Financial Analyst supporting the Healthcare Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) team within the Healthcare sales segment.
We asked Andrea about her career growth over the past 10 years, her experiences with CDW, and what advice she’d give to aspiring CDW coworkers.
What was your path to CDW?
Before CDW, I worked at several Fortune 200 companies, including GE Aviation, Motorola Mobility, and Grainger. I got my MBA right after earning my undergraduate degrees (Accounting & Business Management) from Southwestern College in Winfield, KS, allowing me to jumpstart my career.
I had several people whom I had worked with at Motorola who migrated to CDW Finance and raved about it. I was hesitant at first, but I decided to give it a shot, and here we are 10 years later.
What are the roles you've held at CDW?
I’ve been at CDW for over 10 years and have held seven roles with 8 years of leadership experience:
Did you learn different skills in each role?
YES! With the seven different roles I’ve held, I learned a lot of new skills, especially since I had the opportunity to support multiple organizations while I was in Finance.
I strategically chose each role to expand my skill sets and broaden my knowledge. I took several lateral moves to gain experience and develop as a leader.
How did the opportunity to work in several different roles allow you to be more successful?
I was able to be a better business partner for the teams I supported by gaining new knowledge from each role. I was more well-rounded and brought valuable experience from multiple business areas.
What are the benefits of changing jobs internally?
It allows you to understand new areas of this amazingly multifaceted company. By changing jobs internally, I’ve gained new skills, including multiple systems and tools.
In addition, exploring new roles provides a fresh perspective and professionally challenges the current way of doing things to drive operational efficiencies. It also expands networking opportunities and the ability to work with different leadership, teams, and coworkers.
How has CDW supported your career development?
CDW provides many tools and resources to help you determine your best career path (i.e., mentor programs, online resources, Business Resource Groups (BRGs), workshops, events, etc.).
I have been fortunate to have many mentors and advisors who have helped me along the way. We are all responsible for our own careers, but what’s great is that CDW has a culture of supporting each other and rising together.
One word to describe #LifeAtCDW:
Tenacity. You won’t find a harder-working team or culture. To us, success means never being satisfied. We are also a team that likes to celebrate the wins and victories along the way.
What advice do you have for others interested in a career at CDW?
The possibilities are endless. At CDW, our purpose is to make technology work so people can do great things, and that’s fun and exciting! Reach out to people who already work here and ask for their experiences.
From our hard-working coworkers to inspirational leaders, we move forward together at CDW. Explore our career opportunities to take the next step in your professional journey.
– CDW Team
Meet Andrea Twedell (she/her/hers), Senior Manager, Lenovo – Client Solutions at CDW! After earning her MBA and working at several Fortune 200 companies, Andrea took the first step in her career journey with CDW as a Senior Financial Analyst supporting the Healthcare Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) team within the Healthcare sales segment.
We asked Andrea about her career growth over the past 10 years, her experiences with CDW, and what advice she’d give to aspiring CDW coworkers.
What was your path to CDW?
Before CDW, I worked at several Fortune 200 companies, including GE Aviation, Motorola Mobility, and Grainger. I got my MBA right after earning my undergraduate degrees (Accounting & Business Management) from Southwestern College in Winfield, KS, allowing me to jumpstart my career.
I had several people whom I had worked with at Motorola who migrated to CDW Finance and raved about it. I was hesitant at first, but I decided to give it a shot, and here we are 10 years later.
What are the roles you've held at CDW?
I’ve been at CDW for over 10 years and have held seven roles with 8 years of leadership experience:
Did you learn different skills in each role?
YES! With the seven different roles I’ve held, I learned a lot of new skills, especially since I had the opportunity to support multiple organizations while I was in Finance.
I strategically chose each role to expand my skill sets and broaden my knowledge. I took several lateral moves to gain experience and develop as a leader.
How did the opportunity to work in several different roles allow you to be more successful?
I was able to be a better business partner for the teams I supported by gaining new knowledge from each role. I was more well-rounded and brought valuable experience from multiple business areas.
What are the benefits of changing jobs internally?
It allows you to understand new areas of this amazingly multifaceted company. By changing jobs internally, I’ve gained new skills, including multiple systems and tools.
In addition, exploring new roles provides a fresh perspective and professionally challenges the current way of doing things to drive operational efficiencies. It also expands networking opportunities and the ability to work with different leadership, teams, and coworkers.
How has CDW supported your career development?
CDW provides many tools and resources to help you determine your best career path (i.e., mentor programs, online resources, Business Resource Groups (BRGs), workshops, events, etc.).
I have been fortunate to have many mentors and advisors who have helped me along the way. We are all responsible for our own careers, but what’s great is that CDW has a culture of supporting each other and rising together.
One word to describe #LifeAtCDW:
Tenacity. You won’t find a harder-working team or culture. To us, success means never being satisfied. We are also a team that likes to celebrate the wins and victories along the way.
What advice do you have for others interested in a career at CDW?
The possibilities are endless. At CDW, our purpose is to make technology work so people can do great things, and that’s fun and exciting! Reach out to people who already work here and ask for their experiences.
From our hard-working coworkers to inspirational leaders, we move forward together at CDW. Explore our career opportunities to take the next step in your professional journey.
– CDW Team
