The Apprentice - series 6 - 2010

[Ninja Elephant]

Your motivations for wanting the role and a position with the company will always be a key factor. If you do not understand the role and where it fits in within the business, how can your application be taken seriously? I think (and don't mean to be patronising) that you are young and maybe you were, at the time, applying for a part time/casual role. The Apprentice is about a £100k job. Knowing nothing about the company that you are applying to and the role you are applying for is unforgiveable. I wanted Joanna to win, but she blew it

You're very correct actually, the difference between my interview (it wasn't a casual or a part time role, just for clarity) and the ones for the Apprentice is huge and I didn't talk about them in relative terms before. But that said, I still don't neccessarily think you need to know everything about the company in order to do the job. I think with the right training and a proper introduction to the business, you can still be a very good appointment if you're good enough to be doing what you've applied for.

I think that, in general, the job at the end of this process is the last thing on people's minds when they apply. Maybe I am wrong in thinking that, but I've always thought that actually, the show is more about the weekly tasks than it is about actually winning the whole show and winning the job at the end of it. To an extent, I'm not convinced that it's the right reward for winning this show. You're on TV for 12 weeks, and then that suddenly stops and you start working in a business empire. The fame you've gained over the weeks is over, and it's down to serious business. I've always thought it seems a little bit inappropriate.

ALL of that said though, I never liked Joanna and I'm glad she wasn't in the final. I just think she's been very badly treated in her demise.

 

[Simster]

I thought it was a really disappointing episode tonight. Really didn't enjoy it very much.

Stella is very lucky, it should be Jamie vs Chris in my opinion. Stuart's demise was classic, and Lord Sugar was right, he was wrong last week.

Stella is very lucky. She's a bigger bullshitter than the brand.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

But that said, I still don't neccessarily think you need to know everything about the company in order to do the job. I think with the right training and a proper introduction to the business, you can still be a very good appointment if you're good enough to be doing what you've applied for.

I think you've missed the point of the question though. It's about showing that you're keen to gain a role at the company and as such knowing what that company does etc shows you've made some effort to gaining that role. In reality the answer doesn't even need to be that detailed - just show that you've made some effort to find out. I carried out hundreds if interviews and when it's a close run thing between candidates then this is the sort of thing that gives you an edge. I would NEVER turn up at an interview without at least spending a couple of hours researching the company I had applied for. I've even backed out of interviews after researching a company and finding out I didn't actually like what they did.

 

[Tooting Gull]

I've even backed out of interviews after researching a company and finding out I didn't actually like what they did.

Yes, it's a bugger when you find out that company offering you a 200k salary and great benefits actually sells chemical weapons and landmines to Al Qaeda.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Nah, Stella is the class act in the field. All this bollocks yesterday about being 'just a PA' shows how out of touch some of these interviewers are, and how long it's been since they had to get on the ladder themselves.

Leaving school at 15 with a flake mum and being brought up her great aunt, that's the only job she would get for starters in bank like that. You wouldn't get a position doing what you actually wanted. You would also easily get pigeonholed, so to get away from being a PA and rise to where she is, plus all the stuff she's done in the tasks, a worthy finalist IMHO.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Yes, it's a bugger when you find out that company offering you a 200k salary and great benefits actually sells chemical weapons and landmines to Al Qaeda.

ha ha - it was slightly less dramatic than that but still a company that I would have wanted to work for.

 

[Simster]

Nah, Stella is the class act in the field. All this bollocks yesterday about being 'just a PA' shows how out of touch some of these interviewers are, and how long it's been since they had to get on the ladder themselves.

Leaving school at 15 with a flake mum and being brought up her great aunt, that's the only job she would get for starters in bank like that. You wouldn't get a position doing what you actually wanted. You would also easily get pigeonholed, so to get away from being a PA and rise to where she is, plus all the stuff she's done in the tasks, a worthy finalist IMHO.

Hmmm.

She didn't rise to an awful lot. Sorry but she absolutely was just a glorified PA here, she drove a people carrier (not a Lamborghini or whatever she had said before now), and she was pretty f***ing far from the only woman on the trading floor which is what she said (I reckon we're about 30% female on the floor).

One trader on here is pretty much in love with her but apart from that she's not popular at all and really not missed from a productivity point of view.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Nah, Stella is the class act in the field. All this bollocks yesterday about being 'just a PA' shows how out of touch some of these interviewers are, and how long it's been since they had to get on the ladder themselves.

Leaving school at 15 with a flake mum and being brought up her great aunt, that's the only job she would get for starters in bank like that. You wouldn't get a position doing what you actually wanted. You would also easily get pigeonholed, so to get away from being a PA and rise to where she is, plus all the stuff she's done in the tasks, a worthy finalist IMHO.

Absolutely agree. A friend of mine is a Director of BHS but started as a receptionist there and has no formal qualifications. Hard work and determination get you places ( something students might like to think about )

 

[Pavilionaire]

This year there was no standout candidate.

I was very disappointed with Jamie. I don't think he had any gas left in the tank, there was no energy, no fight and no clear thinking from him in the interviews. This was typified by his "I'm a key cog...in a wheel" burst.

Stella was her predictable cool self, but Sugar's banged on about wanting "with that spark of genius" and, for me, he's said enough to suggest he doesn't think she's got that.

Joanna was simply out of her depth, Chris was good but I felt Sugar's tirade at Baggs was bang out of order. Sugar got caught up in the moment and couldn't deal with 4 advisors implying he'd been wrong to let Baggs get this far, so he got all personal.

The fact is of the 5 candidates one was unemployed, one had been in a bank for 10 years and in her 30s, one was running a company making bugger all money and the other was running a cleaning company that was "getting by". Baggs, at least, formed his own company at 18 and had been running it successfully for 3 years. We have to assume it's been making good money because his claims of having the fancy pad and fast cars weren't challenged. For Sugar to nail him on one aspect of his CV that he'd "bigged up" and miss the bigger picture of him being the only really successful entrepreneur of the 5 was disappointing.

 

[Chicken Run]

This year there was no standout candidate.

I was very disappointed with Jamie. I don't think he had any gas left in the tank, there was no energy, no fight and no clear thinking from him in the interviews. This was typified by his "I'm a key cog...in a wheel" burst.

Stella was her predictable cool self, but Sugar's banged on about wanting "with that spark of genius" and, for me, he's said enough to suggest he doesn't think she's got that.

Joanna was simply out of her depth, Chris was good but I felt Sugar's tirade at Baggs was bang out of order. Sugar got caught up in the moment and couldn't deal with 4 advisors implying he'd been wrong to let Baggs get this far, so he got all personal.

The fact is of the 5 candidates one was unemployed, one had been in a bank for 10 years and in her 30s, one was running a company making bugger all money and the other was running a cleaning company that was "getting by". Baggs, at least, formed his own company at 18 and had been running it successfully for 3 years. We have to assume it's been making good money because his claims of having the fancy pad and fast cars weren't challenged. For Sugar to nail him on one aspect of his CV that he'd "bigged up" and miss the bigger picture of him being the only really successful entrepreneur of the 5 was disappointing.

And he was only 21......, joking aside THIS

 

[Simster]

Even if Baggs wasn't living off his millionaire dad, you can't escape the fact that it's far easier to make decisions in the full knowledge that you're never ever going to be destitute, whatever risk you may take.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

and in her 30s

Sorry but what the f*** does that have to do with her ability to do a job ?

 

[Pavilionaire]

Sorry but what the f*** does that have to do with her ability to do a job ?

That's the point - he's not looking for someone to "do a job", he's looking for enterpreneurial spirit and a spark of genius. If you have that you're not the sort of person who works for 10 years in a Japanese bank.

To be fair to Stella I'd say she ticks EVERY other box apart from that one, but it's the biggest box of the lot. She is NOT creative, she doesn't enthuse people to be creative around her. On the London tour task Jamie whipped her ass on tips £67 to a paltry £8.

 

[Gwylan]

Baggs, at least, formed his own company at 18 and had been running it successfully for 3 years. We have to assume it's been making good money because his claims of having the fancy pad and fast cars weren't challenged. For Sugar to nail him on one aspect of his CV that he'd "bigged up" and miss the bigger picture of him being the only really successful entrepreneur of the 5 was disappointing.

There's a lot that doesn't make sense though. He said that he could afford his own flat at 18 but self-employed people don't normally find it that easy to get mortgages - unless they're putting in a pretty hefty deposit. And if someone at 18 is saving enough to afford a deposit on a flat, they must be pretty well.

So, either he's lying about doing it himself or he's really all he claimed and is raking it in. If so, why would someone who's been working for himself for three years and doing very well want to jack it all in to go and work for an east London spiv?In previous series, they've always asked people who run their own companies why do they want to work for Sugar - they didn't appear to ask The Brand.

The other factor that you had to consider that he was widely disliked by the other contestants and Sugar would bear in mind that he'd have to think how they'd fit in. But I agree that the tirade was out of order - it could have been handled more diplomatically.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I agree with you Gwylan. I don't think he should have been in the final, but then again I don't see why Sugar patronises Joanna for "going out with your head held high" yet berates Baggs (he's only 21! 3 years her junior) with "all 4 advisors tell me you're full of shit, you're fired".

At times I think Lord Sugar is full of shit. He took over Spurs on the eve of the formation of the Premier League, and his reluctance to pump money in allowed the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd and Newcastle to jump ahead of them; it's taken Spurs 20 years to get anywhere near the parity they once enjoyed.

Sugar was either seduced into becoming a football club chairman, in which case he wasted his time and resources because he didn't make a return, OR - faced with an exciting new dawn - he lacked the entrepreneurial spirit shown by the likes of Martin Edwards at Man Utd or David Dein at Arsenal.

 

[Normal Rob]

That's the point - he's not looking for someone to "do a job", he's looking for enterpreneurial spirit and a spark of genius. If you have that you're not the sort of person who works for 10 years in a Japanese bank.

To be fair to Stella I'd say she ticks EVERY other box apart from that one, but it's the biggest box of the lot. She is NOT creative, she doesn't enthuse people to be creative around her. On the London tour task Jamie whipped her ass on tips £67 to a paltry £8.

Actually he might be looking for someone to 'do a job'. Throughout this, and every other, series there have been constant references to whether or not Siralan had a 'suitable role' for any given candidate. This shows that the job on offer is not predefined. You could argue that it's down to luck that any candidates abilities match that of the roles that exist. In my view the entrepreneurial element is totally overplayed. By very definition an entreprenur would not apply for a role with a large corporate.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Actually he might be looking for someone to 'do a job'. Throughout this, and every other, series there have been constant references to whether or not Siralan had a 'suitable role' for any given candidate. This shows that the job on offer is not predefined. You could argue that it's down to luck that any candidates abilities match that of the roles that exist. In my view the entrepreneurial element is totally overplayed. By very definition an entreprenur would not apply for a role with a large corporate.

If you're right then what's the point of the show? The position on offer is supposed to be the "chance of a lifetime", a chance to work ALONGSIDE Sir Alan and not just 'a job'. But as I said earlier, we don't know what the role so can in no way judge who is suitable and who isn't. The only quotes Sugar's made about it is he wants an entrepreneur, a spark of genius, no Steady Eddie or Cautious Carol. I think Stella's a bit of a Cautious Carol.

 

[Normal Rob]

If you're right then what's the point of the show?.

For the BBC -it makes good tele and millions watch it.

For Alan Sugar- it provide millions of pounds worth of exposure for both him and, indirectly, his companies.

 

[Gary Leeds]

Stuart made his money selling phone and internet on the Isle of Man. The fact that they would probably lap up the kind of mobiles you see on Minder from the mid 80s must make this a piece of cake

 

[Wozza]

In previous series, they've always asked people who run their own companies why do they want to work for Sugar - they didn't appear to ask The Brand.

Because the prize is no longer a job working FOR Sugar. We've been through this.