On the corporate/admin side they are really stuck in this ancient mode when it comes to their support staff. It might depend on the office, but in general an admin is looked at as just an admin and working your way up from that position is not likely (at least in the IB department). Also, there is not a flexibility when it comes to the admin/support staff schedule. Even for people at the management level on the HR side any telecommuting options are frowned upon, and if you are just at a basic support staff level they might not allow you to work from home even during a major snow storm. If you have a strong work ethic and are the type of person that is more than willing to be on call for the people that you work with 24/7, this might not be a great place for you to work as an admin because you get reprimanded for that by "office managers" or other administrative management even if the bankers that you work for are appreciative of it/pleased with your work. Also, even if you are working as an executive assistant you won't always receive that job title or fair compensation for what you do unless you were specifically hired for that job and that salary from the very beginning. They treat their admin staff as a pool of people and even if you were hired for one job they will pull you to do other things if they know you are capable of it. Which would be great if they gave you the appropriate title and compensation for the work, but in my experience that wasn't happening.
Also a more general comment - they are SO far behind as far as technology goes. It is painful.
