Great post..
Here's my scenario:
I just stepped into an A&R Assistant position at one of the majors here in LA. I want nothing more than to show my boss I have a good ear, probably from my experience as a struggling producer. Anyways, to show him this, and to also move up the ladder to eventually become an A&R Manager, it starts with finding hot records and getting them placed. So I search for every low-level producer and
songwriter I can find and reach out to them. "Yo, I'm a fan, let's link. Send me records. Let's work." Within a month, I find this songwriter who I'm really excited about that no one knows about yet (no one I follow on twitter follows him. that's been my measuring tool, lol). I reach out and tell him we should get up on some records. I send him beats from various producers I've met and also tracks that my boss has gotten from A-listers such as Hit-Boy, Diplo, Benny Blanco, etc. I tell him there's no guarantee, but if you write something hot, I'd be excited to pitch it. I send him our Who's Looking list and he gets to work. He sends me about 40 songs and there's one I love for one of our artists. I show it to my boss. He loves it. Pitches it to the appropriate A&R (not his artist), they love it. The artist cuts it. The album is supposed to come out 3rd quarter 2013. Now my boss and the rest of the label want to give this songwriter a shot on every track they get. And I'm the one who made that happen.
Obviously the same story can apply to producers. Just giving my example. I know plenty of A&R assistants who are HUNGRY to become A&R Managers, scouring the web for young hot producers and writers. If you're good and we can find each other, there's no telling what can happen.