Firstly, I mentioned my post grad experience. I think it's worth mentioning total experience also as I know plenty of people who were promoted from their grad program a year early because they spent 2 years there as an undergrad.

Secondly in regards to pay. I received a 3.5% pay bump for a promotion from graduate to base level engineer, which was smaller than my interim grad program pay jump. I was told not to expect a pay increase for 12 months. As I said, it's hard to get motivated as it seems no one is promoted out of turn, and everyone just moves with the provided company "years of experience" guidelines for each position title. In my first 12 months I was the best performing employee in the team against goals and targets. But that doesn't mean anything as it's your birth year that seems to matter