Having access to a real lab kitted out with all kinds of equipment has its advantages... A typical benchsetup in my lab can have 20 pr 30 machines on it. A collegua of mine does nothing but characterise switching regulators. He got two scopes, a dynamic signal analyzer , programmable multichannel load, multichannel sourcemeter, at least six 34401 , four power supplies , a bunch a special current probes and amplifiers. A noise generator , a power amplifier and some other esoteric stuff. And its all powered up and connected when 'torturing' a design. Input voltage, input current, output voltage, output current switch current, inductor current, boostpump voltage and many other things are all monitors simultaneously and plotted on a pc screen. The whole thing is gpib controlled. He can program stepped loads and study the regulation behavior of the loop. He'll make really dynamic loads using the noise generator and power amp. He can do slow variations of input voltage to check if the brownout works correctly and if the regulator starts under strange conditions... Like a very slow starting input voltage. Many switchers have problems with that. Meanwhile the part sits in a climate chamber or it can be shoved under a microscope with lasercutter and micromanipulators so we can probe the silicon... And thats just for a switching regulator... You need machinery if you really want to test a design. Being able to watch all parameters simultaneously is the way to go. Prodding around with only a single voltmeter gets you nowhere..
Another advantage of having such a large machinepark is that you don't send stuff out for calibration... You let the calibrators come to you.... We used Voscal service from hp agilent for years. Big truck arrives, unloads some large 19 inch racks in flight cases that get powered up over the weekend and left alone for 48 hours. Then the agilent technicians come in and start doing the calibration. They stay on site for two to three weeks to do all labs in the building. As i had most room i always made sure to volunteer to host them. That way i could talk to these guys.if they found an out of spec machine they attempted adjustment or even repair. Talking to these guys teaches you a lot about machines and their common problems. Most of those guys are electronics freaks as well. Take em out to lunch and the floodgates open wide. It's a matter of keeping you ears and eyes open. Casually walking by when they have a machine open can teach you a lot. Combine that with access to schematics and using any spare moment to study them and you are set....
Agilent used to have so called bench briefs and a monthly magazine. There is a site on the internet that has all of them. Many articles explained techniques used in their new instruments. Go read all of em. You will be amazed at the kind of stuff you can learn...