James Ford

James Ford is an instructor at Brooks Institute where he teaches English and Business. He also has a full-time position in information technology at the University of California Santa Barbara where he is in charge of interface design of a course management system. James has taught over 45 college level courses for about ten years and has done interface design for about a year and a half.

Originally, James thought he was going to be a baseball coach for a High School when he finished his undergraduate degree. After realizing how High Schools were run, he decided not to go in that direction anymore. As he was in search for a different career path, a former professor of his recommended he look into a certain graduate program. James found that he actually liked the program a lot and that is what pushed him to gear towards technology and communications.

Motivation is an important factor in anything that one does. For James, it’s being successful in his career and being recognized in his field. Like most people, he feels he can’t work doing the same thing for too long which pushes him to work harder and move up in his field. It’s that type of accomplishment that keeps his ambitions high and of course, the money doesn’t hurt either. Some of the misconceptions that James’ teaching career has is that people think it is not a real job, is easy and does not take up a lot of time. Although his classes meet only six hours a week, that certainly doesn’t mean he gets the rest of the time off. He takes a lot of time grading papers and talking to students, something people don’t realize because he doesn’t do that in a cubicle all day. One piece of advice that James would give to people who want to get in the same career path is to be aware of the compensation and to talk to a lot of people who are in the same field you choose to be in.