[SBE] Industry retirement situation

[Barry Thomas, CPBE CBNT]

Thanks Clay for some excellent points. 

We need to understand the industry as it is today and understand what is required in order to succeed and retrain ourselves if necessary.  Tell me what industry has not faced this in the Past 30 years?  If we still enjoy what we do, work within it. 

First of all:  We're not a driving our ships. We are in the engine room. Our job is to make things go and to do so in a direction and a manner set by our captains...right or wrong.  My paying job includes VP in my title but I do not decide how our company does business. I simply facilitate our departments to execute their priorities.    
 
Many of us long for the days when this was a simply technical business. It is not. It is built on technology but only so much that it fulfills the need to deliver our products and run our business. 

The industry technical talent is aging, to be certain. This is not a comfortable change but new people are entering the business. The difference is that these new people fit within the parameters of todays media, not yesterdays.  We may not recognize them as our brethren, but they are. 

Complaining about the aging problem, the skills of new staff, and the apparent short-sightedness of managers today does not solve any problems or get us any closer to understanding how we fit in the new paradigm. It does, however alienate those who are part of the new industry structure and help insure that these new people will not consider themselves part of this group or crave our guidance. 

The Society offers many resources to help us learn how to grow into media professionals that are communicative and responsive to the needs of the leaders in our businesses, including our valuable Leader Skills Seminars and panel discussions like the one Chriss is leading at the NAB Show. They require investment but such investment is critical to growing your individual skills to match a new reality. Free education is often worth the cost. 

Barry Thomas
President
Society of Broadcast Engineers, Inc. 


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