Pete, you list your location as England? Are you a UK or EU citizen? If you are a UK national you wont have the right to work in the EU and the chances of getting a visa to fly in the EU will be next to zero in the forseeable years.
Well now exams are done the 36 months is ticking so I wouldn't delay things for too long. You could lock in the exams credits with a SE IR and upgrade to an ME IR at a later date.