No one wants to start in the mail room, because no one favors internal promotions to substantially different jobs over hiring someone with credentials from the outside anymore. So, starting in the mail room means staying in the mail room, and it means pay and working conditions which make it much harder to get better jobs than if you&#x27;d done what was necessary to qualify for higher-status work without bothering with the mail room.<p>There&#x27;s some exceptions, sure, but the working culture where starting in the mail room worked (to the extent it did: note that it was, even when most viable, already a notable exception, not a norm) basically no longer exists.