You are misunderstanding the advice. You don’t necessarily move up just within one company, and you don’t necessarily impress just your direct boss. But fundam

You are misunderstanding the advice. You don’t necessarily move up just within one company, and you don’t necessarily impress just your direct boss. But fundamentally, if a person has a weak resume, the only way to strengthen it is to do good work that has an impact. Then you get some more bullet points on the resume (and can drop some weak ones). And if you have a weak professional network, the only way to improve it is to actually work with people and impress them. You can build professional relationships that can lead to new opportunities, even with peers and people junior to you. Even if you get “spit out” after a year or two, you are better set to get a better job. This obviously can work because almost everyone starts out with a very weak resume and network. Yet, many people go on to build rewarding careers.