I am in my 23rd year of being a locksmith. I am a CPL, working toward being a CML. I am struggling with a few categories, such as prison locks, since I have limited experience with them. I no longer work as a locksmith either. I sold my business to a large regional locksmith company (200 employees) and worked as a service manager and then branch manager. They were acquired by a large lock manufacturer (20K employees). In 2006 I took a new job within the company as a technical trainer / training manager. Basically, I teach product knowledge, locksmithing skills, life safety / ADA, etc., and help with product design and evaluation. Your job sounds interesting. You get to use your hard-earned knowledge without getting covered with graphite and grime.
I am a locksmith by trade and will start my 35th year in the business in June. I do not do locksmirthing per sey anymore though. I am a now a security consultant. I work with large corporations designing security and life safety systems for new construction and spaces to be renovated. We work from the design and blueprint stage with the architects to be certain that the highest level of security is achieved within life safety codes. Before I gave up locksmithing as a business I was an ALOA certified CML.