Already answered, but let me try to make it clearer. So there are no ranks or training courses (basic training is 40days for all - although I did get an extra 2 weeks of NATO translation school). However, because you are a conscript, i.e. the army needs you and not the other way around, you are different "material" than the permanent army staff. You know it, they know it. So when you start out you are a bit like a fish out of the water (they actually call you a "fish"), but as the time passes and you near graduation you have learned how things work, and you get respect from both "newer" conscripts and from officers as well (I guess it is a natural response to your more "experienced" attitude). This effect is compounded if you are old (I was 30 when I got to the army, having gotten educational deferment over the standard age of 18) and also if you are educated (I was actually grouped together with other MS/PhDs). Additionally, where you served mattered as well. You might end up in a backwater camp with strict officers that would try to give you trouble even when you were nearing graduation, and perhaps there is just a Major or Lt-Colonel running the camp who enjoys his absolute authority by showing it off ;) At such a place the officers (or at least the camp Commander) might now observe that unofficial hierarchy much (but they would at least up to a degree). Near the end of my service I was sent to the Greek Pentagon as a Translator and there you were surrounded by Generals, Brigadiers and other educated officers etc. and if you were one of the 3 Translators you even got to visit the "war room", so I had probably maxed-out the possible "unofficial" hierarchy (there is actually an app for that now! it is called "lelemetro", but it is in Greek). You did not get any "pips", but you knew and everyone else also knew. Case in point, when I was sent to the Chinese officer tour I mentioned, I was sent to report to another camp. I appeared in front of the Commander early in the afternoon and he told me that my orders had not arrived yet, they would probably be in the next day, I would have to wait. So I told him, ok, then, you can write me up for a 24h "exit permit" and I will leave you my cell number to call me if something happens before that. He stared for a couple of seconds, wrote down my "exit permit" and I left. I went through the front gate and gave it to the guard. Jaw dropped, he called the other guards. "What the hell is this?" they asked in awe. "24h exit" "but there is no such thing" "there is now". The context you are missing to understand this is that an "exit permission" lasts for a few hours. At most it can last up to midnight (or in special occasions until the morning call), but to get a full 24 hours you need an official leave, which is something you have a specific quota of (and I did not have any to spare). And even with an official leave, you still have to be present at the morning call, whereas I had a strange piece of paper that allowed me an unheard of (at that camp at least - I am sure others have pulled their "rank" like I did in other places) "real" 24h leave that did not even count against my quota. I behaved like a Major General in front of that Commander and he simply went along without even flinching!
