Originally Posted by 212man
What, like Bombardier or Cessna? What about the Boeing Airline division; are they all graduate TPs (maybe Rich knows)?
Well at my end of the ramp, the vast majority ARE TPS graduates - some of more than one (mainly Cold Lake & Edwards so you can work out which of the above I work for - with a sprinkling of NASA, Pax River, EPTS & ENER ). There are, however, some extremely competent TPs & FTEs who didn't come through the military route. Most of these, indeed, don't even appear to originally have had a burning desire to test but gradually ended up doing so after many years of on-the-job experience & training.
This business is an incredibly small world such that a lot of people either know their counterparts or have mutual friends & acqaintances which makes it effectively self-regulating.