When you buy the connections reward trait for your sim, therefore, starting a career at level 4, when you get promoted for the first time, it says you are at level 5 for the career; however, it has you choose a branch of the career (which normally happens around level 7 of careers). Furthermore, when you promote again, you just get a raise and do not raise level in the career.
In this example, instead of being promoted to project manager (level 5 tech guru), Nova was forced to choose a branch of tech guru. I chose Start up Entrepreneur. The next time her performance bar maxed, she did not promote, staying at level 5 of the career and then earning a raise. Subsequently, each time she "promotes" her level 5 career adds four levels. In the last screen shot she has gotten a raise twice, so it says she's Next Big Thing +8 (because it always does multiples of 4).
I have no custom content. I have 39 DLCs, mostly kits and stuff packs, and several expansions. I noticed this bug after the July 1 base game update. The example screenshots are from a scenario, but it doesn't matter whether you are playing a scenario or not; connections always messes up the promoting mechanic. I've tried with several careers, and each time the sim promotes from level 4 to 5, the sim is forced to choose a branch of the career and then never gets to level 6 and instead just receives raises.
