[mamoswined]

"she was young so the role was a stepping stone into a very different position"

In the old days the secretary position was a vocation in itself. Now I see two types of people: - someone who actually wants to do something else. They tend to at least not be stupid, but they aren't going to give a ton of time to honing their secretarial skills either and are going to leave as soon as they get the job they really want. - someone who frankly just isn't very bright. Secretarial work is unfortunately not very high status these days. People who are ambitious and intelligent don't generally chose to be secretaries.

[niels_olson]

But you can't swing a cat without hitting an executive assistant three years out of college and using it as a stepping stone. The value proposition of being the boss's calendar-keeper has been reversed.