I whole heartedly encourage you, without knowing the full situation, to achieve certification and give it your best shot. Once you gain CPC status you can always come back on a reinstatement bid after having CPC at your facility one year. Per the new SOP, you still have to have 5 years atc experience (off the top of my head) provided you have that one year as a CPC. As long as this isn’t TRB #2/3 give it everything you have and once you achieve certification start bidding on DoD jobs to leave your black hole.