Reinhardt - your profile says you're in Qatar. The SETP members database lists none in Qatar. Qatar does not have an aircraft manufacturing industry.
I'm sure that it has a few military TPs somewhere, but far too few to be a representative sample.
I've met many Airbus TPs, some but by no means all of them are former fighter pilots. Some of them don't have technical degrees, some don't have degrees at-all, and not so few its irrelevant.
I am quite sure that if I am looking towards a test pilot job a prospective employer is far more interested in my flying and flight test experience than my BEng and PhD. If I was looking to a university research job that involves some test flying (oh gosh, that's what I actually do, but I already knew that I'm not qualified to work as a TP for Airbus in Toulouse) then the reverse would be more true.
So, I'm afraid Reinhardt that I have to concur with Tester78 and Lomcevac - you really don't know what you are talking about.
For what it's worth, as I'm probably better known on Pprune than they are - I've known both T78 and Lomcevac for a couple of decades, flown with both, and they're vastly more experienced pilots than I am - as well as both having been TPS instructors (I just supervise flight test related PhDs and do a bit of flight testing and specialist training from time to time).
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Last edited by Genghis the Engineer; 28th Apr 2015 at 13:34.