I've initiated the process to apply for a promotion a few times with my current company and I just find the whole process to be stupid. It feels like an abitrary way to obstruct a candidate's ability to apply to the job. I hate the randomness of this kind of process because there appears to be little or no evidence presented to the candidate on why they can't be considered for a promotion. It's all just vague excuses with nonsensical goals that management creates to “improve the performance of the candidate for future job postings”. I wouldn't be salty if they had a process that evaluates the performance and quality of a candidate's work. But, just telling a candidate that they can't apply for x job because we want you to perform harder on y goal is stupid. It's 2022 get with the times and let your internal employees apply to the job online. It all just seems sus when the process is in place to generate less paper work for hr to file.
Maybe I'm just being a salty sour puss. But, talking to employees with similar experiences also seems sus and it's why people perceive that you only hand out promotions to your friends that ride with your management clique.