You may as well say that your job advancement is your responsibility and not your employer's. And it would be true, strictly speaking you're rarely owed promotion - even if you perform incredibly well, there are no guarantees. However, someone could still not wish to work in a dead-end job.

It feels to me that that's the sense in which the young man's comments were meant. It doesn't seem unreasonable in that light. So the compensation he'd like isn't entirely monetary in nature, that's hardly unique.