When Adam Coughran graduated from Chapman University with a degree in political science, he knew he wanted to be a police officer. It wasn't until he started working on his Master of Arts in organizational leadership (M.A.O.L.) and graduated from Brandman University that he realized that there might be other career options in store. Now he has his own consulting business, Standards Training and Consulting, and works with a variety of companies on a security issues. In this Brandman Speaks: Career Talk podcast, Coughran talks about how his education benefited his career.

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Transcript

Welcome to Brandman Speaks: Career Talk. In this episode, Adam Coughran talks about his journey from police officer to officer training to entrepreneurship. It's a transition he doesn't think he would have made without the Master of Arts in organizational leadership he earned at Brandman University. But before that came a degree in political science from Chapman University.

Adam Coughran: When I graduated Chapman I was tracked right in to being a police officer.

So I graduated in May and I found myself in the police academy in July of the same year.

His focus on law enforcement began to shift after earning his master's at Brandman, and it wasn't just what he learned that helped. There were also new connections that proved fortunate.

Coughran: And I got really interested in teaching are really interested in the training and around the same time span I had become a field training officer at my agency and there was an offer to come teach at the police academy I said,'Oh, what a great way to get in.'

And I initially ran into a couple obstacles here and there and had to push and fight my way through but eventually got myself an application and initial job offer to teach it academy.

Well, unbeknownst to me as I go in for my final interview none other than at the time Lt. Toni Bland was sitting behind the desk of the commander's office and we looked at each other and it was like old times at Brandman. We had gone through the M.A.O.L. program together we'd had classes together. It was like seeing an old friend and we you know we give each other a hug and how have you been and it was very maybe a year or less out of the program.

And everyone standing in a room looking around going who is this guy and why is he hugging our lieutenant? And of course through her podcast and everything, we now know that she's done, very successfully, very well for herself.

But I would not be tracked as a trainer as an entrepreneur or as an instructor in higher education had it not been for my Brandman connection in the real world.

Field training other officers lead to training opportunities and other industries.

Coughran: You know I started initially my training career as a field training officer, in the field training brand new police officers and through a number of specialty details that I worked and eventually into a college training I found there's a large need. A lot of people was at were asking me to do training videos, to come speak at conferences, to come train their particular industries. And throughout this, there was a lot of, I start getting honorariums here and there. And I was never asking for money and I never treated it like really a business or an entrepreneur. But eventually my tax man's like you have to do something yourself. There's too many, too many 1099 forms that are coming in. And it was through that I go, 'Well, you know, maybe I should a business license just for a tax purpose.' I just enjoy teaching. I enjoy training and that has evolved over the last few years now into a full-fledged train...