I hear ya, and having been on the other side I can only say that it takes a lot of consistent effort by a boss to make it happen in most organizations. I’d say that smaller privately-held companies are going to be much easier, especially after seeing HR evolve during my career from being a benign service organization to being the “last word” on anything involving people. I have no doubt this was driven by litigation and court decisions that made companies afraid of their own shadows when it comes to anything that creates potential liability. To play devils advocate, I’ll take the example of my internally-promoted engineer - he did fine but what about the precedent that was set? If the next person who wants to follow the same path and fails or can’t perform at the higher level and is demoted of fired, there is a potential liability - at least the person can claim there was unequal treatment and try to get a settlement.
I hate this because I favor a meritocracy but it could explain some of the issues you’ve run into. Finding a company with the right fit and those future opportunities that also has the will and flexibility to advance people on merit alone will be the key.
” Finding a company with the right fit and those future opportunities that also has the will and flexibility to advance people on merit alone will be the key.”
I still hire based on the theory of I am not looking for the best person, I am looking for the right person. That alone eliminates 99% of the ivy league grads who want to work for my company. The majority of them can read a book, but the minute you ask them to form an opinion of it their little brains explode.