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I worked at a company with a process like that when I was an "Engineer" looking for a promotion to "Senior Engineer", at least for me it felt insulting that I had 3 years of performances reviews "exceeding expectations" and "already performing at the level of Senior Engineer" to then be told, ok now you have to do an interview and a presentation to say why you deserve to be promoted to Senior. I declined to go through the process and then left a few months later to become a Senior Engineer at a different company.

I think promotions to the next level should just be considered a new job (in the same company), and you don't 'win it' or get promoted - instead you apply for it and go through an interview process.

That sounds like a recipe for an incredibly toxic environment. Not only are you hired for a specific pigeonhole, you are expressly forbidden from progressing through it: at least in some sane companies promotion is preceded by already having done the new role for a time and the title jump merely formalises the situation.

In fact, I thought the pigeonhole hiring in traditional finance was bad enough. You just managed to outdo decades of dysfunction in one try.

The last thing we need in tech is a codified caste system.

The other posts in this thread make it sound like internal promotion has higher barriers than an external apply/interview/offer process. Bizarre when you think about it, but it does seem to be the norm. The person you're replying to is suggesting that employees should be encouraged to apply to other positions within their current company as if they were an external hire.

I've worked at a company that did both (internal promotion and internal re-hire) and IME people that actively applied to new positions had faster "career progression".

It’s far easier to get a boomerang promotion at Amazon than it is to work through the process.

codified caste system? Have no idea what you mean.

You're hired for a position, when you feel you're ready for the next level you apply, if not, just continue where you are. This doesnt mean you dont get paid more the better you perform. Why do you need someone above you to say you're ready for the next level?

When professors apply for promotion from associate to full in academia, and they don't get it, do you think they apply again? Clearly you would have to jump to a different company in your case if you are denied the first time unless there has been a total management turnover.

> What often happens when an employee doesnt get promoted?

They try again next cycle.

> they leave and usually are able to get that next level role in another company.

how do you know that's what usually happens?

That just gives you a huge incentive to apply externally, which most employers don’t want.

That’s the problem the GP is describing though: it’s easier to get a promotion externally than internally. Their proposed solution wouldn’t really improve things but companies have got themselves into a really weird position when boomeranging is an efficient promotion path.

not at all - i think it's the opposite. Why apply externally, when you know the ins and outs of the current company and have to go through an interview process anyway