Originally Posted by
planejoe
According to their forums there have been CFIs in class who got an ATP on their own. Probably not a regular thing but I'm sure it is happening especially for those who go to a MTC etc...
They've been hiring people at regionals who were still on IOE so I guess it's not really far off anyway.
The one caveat with that is at least on ioe you’ve proven you can complete and be successful in a 121 program. Cfis are almost exclusively from atp. I wouldn’t doubt getting the atp cert on your own could get you in but it’s not a common occurrence.