The first time I missed it, I was angry about the money.

Simplex had a certification incentive program — a dollar an hour for each NICET level, fifty cents for the levels above that. I sat for Level II, missed it by one element, and walked out thinking about the raise I didn’t get. That was the full extent of my motivation at that point.

The next test I passed Level II and attempted Level III in the same sitting. Missed Level III by one element.

That one landed differently.

Something had started to shift

Between the two tests, something had changed that I hadn’t fully noticed yet. People at the branch were asking me code questions. Not because I had the credential — I didn’t yet — but because I was studying for it. The knowledge was showing up in the work before the certification did.

I was becoming someone people looked to for answers. Code knowledge was turning into confidence, and confidence was turning into something I hadn’t expected: I liked it. Not for the recognition. For what it meant about where I was heading.

I started interviewing for branch service manager positions around that time. The dollar raise was still on the list. But it wasn’t the only thing on the list anymore.

Then Bruce Fraser got involved

Bruce Fraser was a mentor from Simplex Corporate. He knew I had failed the notification devices element twice. He also knew that a third failure would mean I’d have to demonstrate — in some formal way — that I had studied differently before I could even sit for it again.

So he did something that surprised me.

He asked me to teach it.

There was a weekend code presentation event in Killington, Vermont. Bruce and a colleague named Greg Cliff put me in front of the room to present the notification devices segment of the code class. The exact element that had beaten me. Twice.

I passed the element the next time I sat for it.

Level III locked. Level IV started.

By the time Level III was done, the incentive chart wasn’t driving the car anymore. Something else was — the realization that every level climbed meant becoming a different version of the technician I had been the level before. Not just more certified. More capable. More confident. More useful to the people around me.

Level IV required a project. I worked alongside an engineering firm on three district schools in Jamestown, New York — fire alarm, room phones, media distribution systems, all Simplex throughout. I brought the engineering team to Gardner, Massachusetts to meet with Simplex system engineers and work through every detail of the project.

Credential number 46679. Issued 1994. The kind of thing that takes a few years and a few failures to earn.

Bruce Fraser retired from this industry years ago. I don’t know if he remembers that weekend in Killington.

I do.

My day isn’t complete until I’ve learned something new. That started somewhere in a Vermont test center, missing Level II by one element, angry about a dollar an hour.

It didn’t end there.