Fake (or misleading) trader career pathways at commodity shops?

Common situation I've seen at a few small trading shops. 

- Someone is a young and hungry helper for a few years. This person has probably earned a promotion, and shop has to do something to retain them. 

- The shop / senior leadership float a "junior trading" job. It's unofficial and nothing is written down. It's under the guise of 'we're going to show you the ropes' and eventually you'll be a full and real trader. No discussion of risk limits, PnL attribution, etc 

- In terms of actual help, you might get a few introductions, get more of a T&E budget, and given some kind of old stale deals to run with. The incumbent business is totally separate - partially because it's someone else's claim already . You have to fully chart your own path. 

- The goal would be to build a book of course. But you might get conflicting views on how much your role is even endorsed by your shop. While they might tell you 'junior trader' they are telling external people "my scheduler is helping me out a bit." 

- No actual hard language around your seat cost, or how you could get fired for not making money, etc. Whole thing is framed as 'getting mentored slowly' while you're still largely helping out with your old functional role. and if your new commercial book is struggling to form, they can just neatly tuck you back into the old job. It's not like they are losing out on any real investment. 

I'm not saying these roles are fully a scam - I have seen rare people succeed from here. I think it's a retention tool first and foremost. The main pipeline of traders is still just hiring experienced traders over from integrated type companies.