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This is probably what he means. It's the case at a lot of companies, and particularly tech companies. There's probably no set rulebook along the lines of "You will spend X years in Y position in Z department, then you will be promoted to Y+1, where you will spend another X years until Y+2," etc.

That kind of structured progression seems to be going away in a lot of industries, with the notable exceptions being the big client-facing industries (consulting, banking, law, and so forth).

If you look at company reviews on glassdoor.com, you'll notice that people either complain that their company has too many layers of management, or that there are no opportunities for advancement.

I've never heard anyone claim that Apple is overly bureaucratic.

People have tried to make that claim, but Apple's Reality Distortion Field picked it up and the guilty parties were taken out back and shot.

Remember that 1984 video? Yeah.

Either that or a Google-style flat hierarchy. There may simply not be that many manager positions to get promoted into.

Could you elaborate more on the system?