Performance-based with some luck involved
Pros
Plenty of room to grow and learn technologies. Good for fresh graduates or already highly paid experts who are looking to stick to one company for the rest of their lives.
Cons
Heavy workload for little salary. You are often asked to deliver things that are way too advanced for your career level. Pay is not good for "homegrown" employees in the long run, only had one increase in 3 years and it was just a +4% increase of the monthly salary. Heavy on politics. Promotion depends on performance with plenty of luck involved - heavily reliant on your manager's attendance and defense during deliberations, project budget, quantitative contributions to the project are also big factors. Plenty of competition in the lower level of the career ladder. Plenty of empty promises from leads that you will be promoted in the next cycle and it actually never happens. This is one of the most common causes of high performing employees leaving the company.