History Main / LimitedAdvancementOpportunities

* Captain Haddock, which is lampshaded in ''Franchise/{{Tintin}} and the Picaros''

[[folder:Real Life]]
* This is increasingly the case due to the practice of outsourcing non-core business functions. Previously one could break into a large organization by gaining an entry-level position in the "mail room" or as a janitor, food service, or clerical worker and then apply to other positions internally. Now, despite working within the walls of the larger organization, these low-level workers are only employees of the narrowly-focused outsourcing agency that have practically no pathways for advancement.
* Many jobs have a defined pay band, so no matter how long an employee is in the job or how good a job they do, the only way to earn an official promotion is to apply to and be accepted into a different job that has a higher "rank". Employees may also find themselves "tracked" in that someone in a technical or support position is not able to break onto a management track due to a perceived lack of experience that they can never actually acquire since a prerequisite is ''[[Catch22Dilemma holding a management position]]''.
** This can also be subverted, as some organisations that use pay bands try to solve the latter issue by recruiting people a grade below for short-term assignments (either to cover a planned absence such as maternity/paternity leave, or as part of a short-term project) and giving them a Temporary Responsibility Allowance (TRA) on top of their normal pay. You don't get as much as you would if it was a permanent post, and you'll be back to your own job when you're done but you do get the experience to put onto your CV/Resume.
* As one ascends up the officer ranks in the US military, this becomes increasingly true. This is because federal law places a hard limit on how many people can hold a certain high rank per service in a given year. The higher the rank, the fewer the billets (positions) that are available. Obviously the number of [[FourStarBadass four star generals and admirals]] is capped at the lowest number. This makes advancement to higher and higher ranks very competitive.
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* This has been (partially) avoided on ''Series/StargateSG1'', in that Captain Samantha Carter was promoted first to a Major, then to Lieutenant Colonel -- though throughout these promotions, she stayed with the same team. In an attempt to decrease Richard Dean Anderson's screen time (he's slowly retiring), his character was promoted to Brigadier General for season 8 and he started running Stargate Command rather than going on missions. In seasons 9 and 10 he heads up Homeworld Security in Washington as a Major General, which leaves him to appear once or twice a season as a guest star. In fact, only two regular cast members have not been promoted: Daniel Jackson (a civilian) and Teal'c (technically also a civilian, officially a PrivateMilitaryContractor).

* In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Obi-wan tells his master Qui-gon Jinn that he would already be on the Jedi High Council if he would just stop arguing with them. Qui-gon doesn't mind since he prefers following his own interpretation of the will of the Force.

* Donald Cragen of ''Series/LawAndOrder'' and ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' has been a Captain in the NYPD for a quarter of a century. By the later seasons, it's clear that he's never going to advance because of his unit's tendencies to [[CowboyCop bend the rules]] and his unwillingness to do favors for politically-connected suspects. He finally is forced into mandatory retirement due to age in Season 15 of ''SVU''.

*** In [[Literature/StarTrekCoda]], Miles O'Brien is at long last promoted to Command Master Chief Petty Officer.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': The core quartet of Beckett, Castle, Esposito, and Ryan remains constant throughout the show's entire eight-year run. Castle is a civilian who theoretically tags along to use Beckett and her team as source material for his ''Literature/NikkiHeat'' novels, but the other three should've been promoted at some point. Beckett spends a couple episodes at the start of season six working as an investigator for the attorney general but gets fired for political reasons, and in a couple season seven episodes is heard complaining about her lack of advancement (though the WhatIf universe shown in "[[Recap/CastleS7E6TheTimeOfOurLives The Time of Our Lives]]" has her as the squad captain, and stuck investigating her desk all day). Eventually Beckett ''does'' get promoted in the last season, while Ryan and Esposito decide to take the Sergeant's Exam.