If you don't have a college degree, your best shot at a big promotion is actually when your company is in total chaos.
Standard management theory suggests that clear job descriptions and stable operations help people advance. This study found the opposite: in tech companies, extreme 'developmental uncertainty' forces low-status workers and high-status professionals to collaborate closely, allowing those without credentials to learn high-level skills. Once the company stabilizes and automates its processes, this window of opportunity closes, and status boundaries harden again.
Developmental Uncertainty: When Coordination Demands Enable Occupational Mobility Across Status Boundaries
SSRN · 6305159
Organizations struggle to develop professional talent while workers without credentials struggle to obtain it-a structural mismatch with consequences for firms, workers, and the economy. Nonprofessionals increasingly work alongside professionals in technology development, but prior work is pessimistic about implications for skill development: status boundaries are defended, knowledge is hoarded, and inclusion efforts tend toward extraction rather than development. We theorize a striking exceptio