For more context: When opening a permanent position, research institutions are required by law to advertise the position publicly and interview candidates. We

For more context: When opening a permanent position, research institutions are required by law to advertise the position publicly and interview candidates. We are talking about permanent positions guaranteed for life with fantastic perks. They're extremely competitive to get. When a permanent position is opened, it's often for a position that's been contracted out for a while. Want to hire the contractor who's been doing the job perfectly for 2 years? It's simply not possible because of the law above. Gotta advertise the job nationwide and run formal interviews. An interview panel will run interviews and pick whoever they like (it takes months). It's not as rigged as the poster makes it out to be. The panel is 5+ random people selected among a very large company. They don't know that the position is tailored to someone and they couldn't care less either way, they're all people with a cushy position guaranteed for life, no favor to give. (It's really the opposite of Russia/China for those doing the comparison). It's rigged in the sense that if there was somebody doing the job for year, they're probably more qualified than you are. This rule exists to prevent middle managers from doing empire building and growing their headcount indefinitely. It works as you can see above where a better person was chosen.