One of the benefits of my job (military) is my upward movement is almost entirely based on my motivation. A huge portion is of the competition (as it is a competition) is a test on both the service at the level you’re moving into and your particular specialty. But there’s also time in rate (the pay grade you are currently at) and time in service, both of which get capped at a certain point (we call those “dinosaur points”) so your chances improve the longer you’re in. It also includes award points (medals, basically) and some other things, and finally employee review (the next largest chunk after the test).

So work hard to get a good review and study for a test, and you move up. But that’s not always a good thing. I sat at E-5 for a long time because I loved the job I was doing, and I was making decent money (about 60k after taxes), but then I was such a “senior” E-5 that I got to do the job I loved less (being a helicopter flight mechanic, maintaining and fixing aircraft) and the next level up stuff more (managing people, mentoring, supervising), so I just decided I would make the effort and get paid for it (which I did).

As much as people in my service complain about how advancement (promotion) works, every story I hear about how absolutely arbitrary and shitty it is in the civilian world I’m reminded how good I have it.