High school environment.
The position you apply for will be the position you remain at for the entirety of your time at Granite. Moving up? Unlikely. Unless they fire someone and are in need to fill that spot. By all means, do not consider your promotion fair at all. Despite the amount of certifications and degree's, your salary will not be drastically changed. Human Resource individuals are defintely biased. Everyone who has a corporate role or knows someone from corporate will remain in that company despite being in trouble. Favoritism in this company paralells a lot to politics. Know someone up there? You got yourself a great position and pay.
Family environment but with the wrong intentions.