Search results matching tag 'Apprentice'

The Apprentice is the future of TV

902609 — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:30:00 GMT

I have watched the apprentice, as many of us have, for several seasons now. Last week brought a whole new dimension to the experience. At the start of the programme, the BBC encouraged me to play along with the Apprentice Predictor., This allowed me to vote at any time on who I thought would be fired, to change my vote at any point, but most importantly, to see how everyone else was voting at any one time. A careless or mindless comment, and their popularity for being the next to be fired could shoot up by 10 or 20%. You can instantaneously see whether you agree or disagree with the rest of the world. It really did make the programme much more entertaining and engaging.

And I see that Samsung is already adding in Twitter to its new range of TVs. Services like Joost already allow you to share your viewing experiences online, and this is one more step to sharing your TV viewing with your friends without having them clutter your lounge and empty your fridge of beers. TV is adapting to social media, and potentially making the experience much more compelling and complete.

Lorraine next for the chop!

Re: Did Lee McQueen deserve to win The Apprentice?

254783 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:18:03 GMT

The short answer is No. However, we only get to see a brief part of the overall tasks and it does make entertaining Tv for a change. He manged to kick into touch the lie on the CV and clearly McQueen did not see that onwe coming when the interviewer pulled out a fax from the university. I suppose having exposed the lie the candidate is then very under the cosh so would therefore make a good candidate. I've screamed at the TV, jumped up and down at some of the corporate hyperbabble being trotted out each week and FOCUS GROUPS !!!!!!!!!!! Happy to say I helped introduce them in the early 1970's at Foote Cone and Belding / Welbeck Public Relations and delighted that the misery of them is still being inflicted on sucessive generations. The joke being that the whole idea of a focus group is deeply flawed as nwe exposed at the time, but it does enable the agency to put one over the client as any recommedation can be laid at the door of the focus group and thererfore must be right!

Back to Sir Al's Apprentice, how about a squad of candidates taken from the 50/60's age group! Just imagine a group of oldies being lectured by the fuzzy one and the barbed retorts flying back over the board room table. Ageing sexual chemistry in the house, refined dinner parties instead of a bottle of chardonnay and a delivery pizza, To top it all the Sir Al watchdogs could be in this instance from the 20-30's age group. A complete reversal! Simply magic and remeber I thought of the idea Mark Burnett!

3 Lessons I Learned From The BBC's The Apprentice

980070 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:58:00 GMT

It’s all about team work. Recognising each other’s strengths and weaknesses is crucial to success in any given project. I work with some of the cleverest people I’ve ever met, but I wouldn’t let some of them out in front of customers, just as they wouldn’t let me near a spreadsheet. Having empathy with colleagues and knowing that a one-size-fits-all approach to “impact and influence” doesn’t work, are both great qualities. Being self-critical, accountable and aware are also fabulous attributes as you demonstrate that you don’t know everything and are continually learning

We have to teach presentations skills at school. Some of the apprentices were woeful. It’s not easy standing up and speaking, in fact it’s one of our greatest fears, so why is it not nipped in the bud early in education. I still see appalling presentations at conferences where people have not rehearsed, provide wordy slides and then read from them verbatim!!! It’s not easy but it isn’t rocket science either.

It’s OK to cheat and lie on your CV about your education or professional background. People who do that are bound to be winners and command £100,000 salaries as an apprentice in a multi-national company.

Right I’m off to update my resume!

Great TV But That’s Not How To Interview!

980070 — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:29:00 GMT

Anyone who saw last night’s Apprentice would have been on the edge of their seats as “Surrallen” showed Lucinda the door and turned his attention to the remaining four candidates. We had been told there’d be three evictions, leaving two for the final. But in a fabulous twist, the big man decided to keep all four and have them all battle it out in next week’s final showdown.

Yesterday’s episode left me a little uncomfortable though. I know it’s entertainment and much of the content is over dramatic and edited well for the TV audiences, but I’m not sure the interview techniques of some of “Surrallen’s” chums necessarily sent a good message to prospective candidates hoping to make it in the real world.

They were very aggressive, inflammatory and some of the questions were dafter than a brush!

I’ve always been taught that interviewing prospects for a roles should be more about HOW they succeeded in various tasks or jobs, not just about what they say they did.

Having someone that “managed a team that achieved £10m in sales” is great! But shouldn’t we be more interested in HOW they reached that goal. What was the actual target? (It could have been £20m!) How did they motivate their team to succeed? What challenges did they face? How did they overcome obstacles? Where could they have improved?

Karen Brady asking why the candidates thought they “were the ones for the job” surprised me. What data can you go on when someone replies that they’re flexible, hardworking, a good team player, life and soul of the party!

Anyone can SAY anything to big themselves up. What we need to know are examples, detailed examples of how they have demonstrated those competencies.

Humility and having a self-critical streak is a big bonus too. No one is perfect. We all have room for improvement and being self-aware of our short-comings is a great skill to have because it demonstrates we have more to learn. It gives us a goal in our careers to get better at whatever we want to do.

I remember interviewing a guy once. He obviously felt he could show no weakness during the hour and a half I was with him. At the end I said I realised he felt he was good at lots of things but said I wanted to know what he wasn’t good at.

After a long sweaty pause he replied, “I’m not good at football!”

Having suggested he think of something work-related he said he needed to get better at Microsoft Office Excel.

We could all get better at Excel, couldn’t we?