[jimnotgym]

I work at a large factory. Most of the senior people started on the shop floor or as engineering interns. It's a long road, but the pattern I see is smart people who are willing to put themselves out, volunteer to run a line, volunteer for continuous improvement projects etc. Most of those positions are advertised internally. In the management team I see many who started in a junior job 20 years ago. There are lots of roles at a large factory, so everything from finance, software development, legal, hr are all ways in. There just aren't as many factories any more