I am toying around with the idea of reinstating my SBE certifications. At one time, I was certified as a Senior Radio Engineer. That certification lapsed several years ago for a variety of reasons. The first and foremost was my desire to find another career outside of radio. At the time, I was working for a giant flaming asshole who prided himself in causing his subordinates health problems; things like strokes and heart attacks. The sign over his desk read “The floggings will continue until morale improves.” I was also busy at home with a new, very young child and an old, broken down house. There was not enough time to come up with enough professional points to re-certify or study for a test. So, it went by the wayside.
Lately, however, I am beginning to see some advantage in having an SBE certification:
- It comes in handy as a skills benchmark for potential clients and others
- It lends some amount of credibility among fellow broadcast engineers
- There is a support network for job searches
Thus, when I went to the SBE website and found the Jubilee Project, I was intrigued. The SBE is offering to reinstate those former members with lapsed certifications until April of 2014 provided the applicant can supply enough recertification points. I am also contemplating taking the Certified Broadcast Networking Engineer test for much the same reasons listed above. I will let you know how it goes.
Incidentally, my ability to deal with giant flaming assholes as increased in the intervening years. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.