TL;DR: Applied for an internal position that I was more than qualified for. Told the company does not allow people to take a position more than 2 “levels” from your current role. Also, manager wanted me to give them all my business ideas during the interview.
I have been working for a corporate machine for many years. I am currently considered a “professional”, but the lowest level that you can be graded. Despite this, I always had the attitude that hard work pays off. I worked like a “senior” level- training all personnel for the department, writing SOPs that didn't exist, resolving systems issues that saved the company millions of dollars, etc. During this time I also acquired my Bachelor's degree with a 4.0 GPA. Insanely hard during a pandemic and amidst some personal tragedies.
Now imagine I'm a level 5. A position for a level 1 position opens up in another department I work closely with. The everyday team members from that department love me and want to see me stay with the company (my current role is going to be outsourced by EOY). I've always gone out of my way and beyond my job description to help them.
Now, the company has a history of lay-offs, restructuring and not being so great in general, but I allowed myself to get really amped up about this position. The job description perfectly matched all of the “extras”, I was currently doing in my spare time. The other candidates did not nearly come close tp understanding some of the back end systems knowledge required for the position. When I interviewed with management, I had many ideas for the department for things they could be doing. The manager asked for my ideas. Stupidly, I shared them.
Eventually management came back and said that I could not rise from a level 5 to a level 1. That's not allowed, despite how qualified I am for the role. I also now realize 1. I probably intimidated the manager 2. they saw me as future competition, and 3. that they rather take my ideas to pawn off as their own.
Repeat after me: Hard work doesn't pay off. Keep great ideas to yourself until after you've secured the position.