Star Trek Picard: 10 Plotlines Season 3 Should Address
4. Captain Seven
It seems there are two ways to become a Captain in Starfleet.
Firstly there's the Will Riker way; which involves grinding your way through years of challenges at Starfleet Academy, before graduating with your sights set firmly on a command of your own. You then move from posting to posting, repeatedly demonstrating qualities well above those of your fellow officers, before spending the better part of 2 decades actually refusing that last promotion. Finally, when your movie series if facing the axe, you make the jump to the big chair in one of the sexiest ships in the fleet.
That's one way. The Seven of Nine way is to just be kicking around the bridge during a crisis situation and get appointed to it on the spot. Good for her!
While it was a plot convenience that had a number of fans pulling their hair out ("she's not even in Starfleet!! waaah waaah waaah") it does open up some interesting narrative avenues for the show. Especially given that season 2 would have benefitted from more time being spent on the Stargazer, rather than just bookending the time-travel story with visual set-pieces around it.
With Seven in the big chair you've got a lot to work with.