They are not necessarily wrong. The most straightforward way to grow into the role you want (e.g. a manager) is to get direct experience doing the job. For exam

They are not necessarily wrong. The most straightforward way to grow into the role you want (e.g. a manager) is to get direct experience doing the job. For example, if you wanted to get a manager role at a FAANG-type of company, you could: 1. Get a role as a junior developer at a FAANG, get 2+ promotions, hope your team has enough scope and resources to let you try out manager duties 2. Get a role as a junior developer at a growing company, be quickly forced into manager duties, then transfer into FAANG True, some places will use this to their advantage to underpay you, but you should be aware of it as a tool in your career.