{"id":1042,"date":"2014-03-26T20:23:33","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T20:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/184.173.81.185\/~mycareer\/sanjac\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2014-03-26T20:23:33","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T20:23:33","slug":"faculty-spotlight-eddie-fosters-journey-finding-best-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanjac.mycareerfocus.org\/fall-2016-volume-1-issue-2\/faculty-spotlight-eddie-fosters-journey-finding-best-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Spotlight: Eddie Foster\u2019s journey to finding the \u2018best job\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"facultyspotlight\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Eddie Foster\u2019s lifelong love may be high school football, but the Mont Belvieu native describes how the lovesick blues set him on a path into welding, or what he calls the \u201cbest job.\u201d<\/p>\n

As department chair of industrial technology at San Jacinto College, Foster now guides students along a path that has changed from on-the-job training to formal education.<\/p>\n

What jumpstarted your career in welding?<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter graduating from Barbers Hill High School, I attended Lamar University to pursue studies in kinesiology, to one day be a high school football coach. After my first semester, I got the lovesick blues and came home and got married.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to work as a laborer, lining up pipes that were going to be installed for Raymond Piling and Cementing. After a few months, I eventually went to work for Brown & Root as a pipefitter\u2019s helper. At that time, we had our two children. I wanted better pay and transferred over to Mobay Chemical Corporation to work as an operator and then back to pipefitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is when I decided to try welding, because I was exposed to welders on the job, and\u00a0 both my father and brother were welders as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

After you found your niche for welding, what were your next steps?<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that time, in the late 1970s, welding was really the fastest way to earn craftsmen money. I trained for welding on the job at Brown & Root, based at what was at the time Gulf Chemical Plant at Cedar Bayou. After almost two decades, I went back to school, this time Lee College to pick up studies again in kinesiology. A counselor suggested I go ahead and finish an associate degree plan in welding technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did you become an educator?<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard about a welding instructor position here at San Jacinto College and began teaching noncredit courses in 1997. I later became full time and then department chair a few years later. This is truly the best job I have ever had. It is also very rewarding, especially when you hear back from former students who have gone on to have great welding careers with excellent pay and great benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is the job outlook
\nfor welders?<\/p>\n

\u201cWelding is a craft you can take anywhere in the world.\u00a0Somebody who has learned this skill is in high demand now. There were a lot of older workers nearing retirement and very few young workers. Now, the need is very much there.\u201d<\/p>\n

How has welding changed over the years?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry itself hasn\u2019t drastically changed, but now you may see more robotics and automated welding in the shops. You still need people to work those machines, and you need people to weld in the factories and refineries. Currently, the hot industries now for welders are oil, maintenance, and construction. Also, more and more people are learning to weld as a hobby or for art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you weld outside of the classroom now?<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople do ask me a lot if I have a welding machine at home or if I built myself a barbecue pit. Nope, but I do have my TV to watch my college and high school football.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Longhorns is my college football team, and my favorite high school team will always be Barbers Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeannie Peng-Armao<\/i><\/p>\n

For information about the San Jacinto College welding program, visit www.sanjac.edu.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eddie Foster\u2019s lifelong love may be high school football, but the Mont Belvieu native describes how the lovesick blues set him on a path into welding, or what he calls the \u201cbest job.\u201d As department chair of industrial technology at San Jacinto College, Foster now guides students along a path that has changed from on-the-job… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,9],"tags":[],"article_type":[],"class_list":["post-1042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","category-education","category-success-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nFaculty Spotlight: Eddie Foster\u2019s journey to finding the \u2018best job\u2019 - Spring 2016 and previous editions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sanjac.mycareerfocus.org\/fall-2016-volume-1-issue-2\/faculty-spotlight-eddie-fosters-journey-finding-best-job\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faculty Spotlight: Eddie Foster\u2019s journey to finding the \u2018best job\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eddie Foster\u2019s lifelong love may be high school football, but the Mont Belvieu native describes how the lovesick blues set him on a path into welding, or what he calls the \u201cbest job.\u201d As department chair of industrial technology at San Jacinto College, Foster now guides students along a path that has changed from on-the-job... read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sanjac.mycareerfocus.org\/fall-2016-volume-1-issue-2\/faculty-spotlight-eddie-fosters-journey-finding-best-job\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spring 2016 and previous editions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-26T20:23:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sanjac.mycareerfocus.org\/fall-2016-volume-1-issue-2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2014\/03\/facultyspotlight.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"419\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sanjaccreate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sanjaccreate\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sanjac.mycareerfocus.org\/fall-2016-volume-1-issue-2\/faculty-spotlight-eddie-fosters-journey-finding-best-job\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sanjac.mycareerfocus.org\/fall-2016-volume-1-issue-2\/faculty-spotlight-eddie-fosters-journey-finding-best-job\/\",\"name\":\"Faculty Spotlight: Eddie Foster\u2019s journey to finding the \u2018best job\u2019 - 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