Recent Grad - Worth applying for mail room job?
I often hear how people started their careers in the mailroom, but is it worth it? I'm a recent grad, having a hard time finding a job. I went to a decent school, but the lack of internships seems to be biting me in the behind. I came across a job opening at an investment bank that is looking for a clerk who processes mail, orders supplies, etc.
Would starting my career in the mail room be plausible if I plan to grow within the organization? I want to become an analyst, but is it even possible if I'm labelled a mail room clerk to begin with?
Thank you.
It's a long shot but it's possible. Besides, if you have no other offers on the table, you have nothing to lose. If you hustle, you have a chance of making something great happen.
Absolutely not... this is a terrible idea. If you have interest in moving into the bank, you'd be better off doing just about anything else where you will actually learn skills related to what you ultimately want to be doing. Opening mail in the vicinity of bankers will not put you even close to people vying for the same jobs who took a job doing accounting or finance even at a local company out of school. If your options are mail room vs. living on the street then take it, but otherwise you're selling yourself short.
This might've worked back in the day, but more than likely not in the 21st century.
I started my career filing trade tickets as a temp at GS - the other two guys with my job hadn't gone to college (I graduated engineering/finance with a 3.7 GPA from a good school into a bad economy). Worked out pretty well for me...got moved to middle office, then trading, then switched to ibanking and became a VP before starting an operating company in my area of expertise.
A paid job doing BS is better than no job at all. Work your ass off and with some luck, the right people take notice. I volunteered for every extra little thing that I heard about (and asked a lot of questions of everyone around so I heard about a lot) because I got paid 1.5x for over 40 hours. I took on every menial task possible and eventually the powers that be (during a hiring freeze) realized that I was way cheaper if they made me a real analyst than what I was costing them as a temp working 80 hours.
I actually personally know someone (who is late 20s, so this was relatively recently) who worked their way from the mail room to investment banking...but it's clearly extremely unlikely and the stars really have to align for something like that. As above, taking something else more relevant but outside an investment bank is the better option
Thanks very much everyone. Would an administrative/executive assistant position be just as bad if I'm looking into a career in finance? Again, I want to be an analyst but am just curious if it would help me get a leg up, I suppose.
i'm sure there are exceptions, but finance isn't like the creative industry. in the creative industry you might learn who the power players are, get to know their names, get some facetime etc., but in banking you're not going to be learning how to be a better analyst by shooting the shit.
any job is better than no job, unless that job's an opportunity cost preventing you from getting the job you want.
mailroom clerk (Originally Posted: 04/11/2007)
How does a person get a job as a mailman or some other entry level job at a BB?
s a few ds
talk english!
lol @ nyc
Did you just watch an 80s movie? You aren't going to make it to the "corner office" from the mailroom.. it's just a movie bud!
it's mr. determined. that's a movie waiting to happen.
here's what he's thinking is going to happen:
He goes to work as a mailroom clerk. One day, he's delivering a letter to a half-decent trader. He notices an usual pattern developing in the numbers on the trader's screen. He tells the half-decent trader to put an order in. The trader laughs and tells him to deliver some more mail. When all the traders are gone the next day during lunch, he puts in an order based on the pattern. The firm makes several hundred mill. They promote the half-decent trader. The half-decent trader thinks that it was the mailroom clerk who did this but doesn't tell anyone. Eventually, the half-decent trader gets caught up in his lies and he confesses that it was the mailroom clerk. The mailroom clerk gets made into a prop-trader with $1 bil in trading money and he single handedly turns the company from the brink of bankruptcy to the number 1 trading house. He starts getting laid by the secretaries. Every bank wants him. He starts getting protection calls from the mob. He's a hotshot. Then, makes a gamble that goes bad. He doubles down. And down. Until, he's down quadruple of what he's made. He makes one last bet, that the NYSE would fall on a specific day. He's got his back to the wall. The NYSE has to fall otherwise, his life of fame is gone. He decides to manipulate the market. He pays off some terrorists to blow up the NYSE trading pit. The time of planned execution is close. It seems like his plan is about to work, then it happens. FBI agents bust through his office door and he's got his face pinned to the floor. The terrorists were undercover agents. He's fucked, but it was a fun ride.
Or this could happen:
He goes to work as a mailroom clerk.
Fastforward to ten years later.
He goes to work as a mailroom clerk.
He goes to work as a mailroom clerk, and one day he's going back home to visit his family for Chirstmas and gets on his flight. What he doesn't know is that there are SNAKES ON THE PLANE!!!!!
ARRGHGHGHGHGHGHGH!!!
How are the exit opps ?
just shut up. seanc you are not funny either. die please.
it's called networking. by working at a BB and getting to know some people, I may have a chance of getting an internship for the following summer.
Yes you may have a chance. And you may have wasted a summer being a mailroom clerk.
You're better off doing something more relevant during the summer if you are in your soph year.
What do you suggest doing?
I wasn't sure if this was a joke or not, seems not. Man you have tunnel vision, it's not the 1950s, you can't make the leap from mailroom to boardroom anymore. How about you use your initiative, call around, offer to work for free in some brokerage or whatever and something will come up. If you want something that badly things often have a way of falling into place. Call it the big man in the sky, luck, fate or whatever, but most people who really want banking get it in the end.
Can one still work themselves up from the metaphorical Mail Room? (Originally Posted: 12/22/2016)
While trolling linkedin I ran across some people who used to be tellers at banks and landed some decent roles. Anyone here have a similar experience at any organization?
Or think getting a mailroom (not literally) job might be a good or bad idea?
bump
Well, i don't have any experience in that. Though I would only say do the job you feel comfortable in and are happy in doing the same. Otherwise the life becomes hell..
Being a bank teller is a pretty good job for someone going to college. Plenty of people work their way up. Just about everyone who works before or during college does something menial.
Yeah I agree with this. Had a good buddy intern as a bank teller in college, now works in the Muni department of an IB. This was 10+ years ago
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