I must've been lucky or just good at networking then.
I never had to BS anything.
People at work saw I took initiative, directed the troops, did the job well.
They started offering me low-tier admin duties on top of my regular duties.
That springboarded into meeting and being useful to some of the upper-level officers at my instutiton. Including the Chief Medical Officer, who is pretty much the Commander Riker to the hospital's president/Captain Picard.
That springboarded into landing another position, which happens to have good capacity to launch some other career goals for me.
I guess I'm just too ambitious to think something like a "cruel circle" is going to stop me from doing whatever I want to do.