Last night’s semi-final showed the remaining five candidates facing their biggest challenge so far with the interviews from hell. As in previous years, Claude Litner, Bordan Tkachuk and Karren Brady returned, this year joined by newcomer Alan Watts, to grill the finalists in all aspects of their lives, leaving no stone unturned as they picked up every little discrepancy from the candidates’ CVs and references.
Yasmina Siadatan appeared to be the most confident interviewee at the outset, declaring, “I’m going to be brilliant in every way.” She wasn’t quite so self-assured when Claude picked up on the fact that she had declared incorrect business figures from her restaurant. Annoyed, Yasmina asked, “How do you get hold of my business accounts?” not realising that as a limited company, anyone could gain access to these. For a so-called successful businesswoman she didn’t seem to know the difference between gross and net profit and even had trouble describing what turnover is. She was further grilled by Alan about the fact that her mother had remortgaged her house to finance her children’s restaurant venture; some of the interviewers were worried by this, others thought it a sensible move. Although Yasmina maintained her confident manner in front of the other candidates, it was obvious she’d been shaken by the interview experience.
Debra Barr was also ultra-confident from the word go but realised she had to show that she wasn’t loud, obnoxious, aggressive and rude (all these words taken from her own referees!) Claude said he struggled to see her as a team leader, obviously questioning her people skills to which Debra replied, “I’m not ruthless, just ambitious, I am a team player.” Karren Brady, one of Britain’s most successful businesswomen, told Debra, “No-one calls me a bitch.” We were reminded several times however that Debra is still only 23, a fact that is quite hard to believe, she seems a lot more mature and I personally feel she will probably calm her approach down in years to come and become a real success.
Lorraine Tighe, the most nervous interviewee, couldn’t stop talking, mostly about her ‘gift’ of intuition. Karren asked her, “If it’s such a gift, why didn’t you use it to put the correct dates on your CV?” Lorraine shifted uncomfortably in her seat and said it had probably been a typing error which made it seem she had been in her last employment for a year longer than she really had. Claude thought she might be delusional! Lorraine has suffered a lot of personal difficulties in her life which she seems to have overcome now, but she still has the unfortunate ability to rub people up the wrong way and the interviewers noted that.
James McQuillam had written a somewhat less than business-like application form which ensured he got into the final 16 but which didn’t help him much in the interviews, using expressions such as, “I’ll put a leash on people who spunk money up a wall,” and , “I bring failure to the table” (??) He works in the telecoms industry and Claude was baffled by his CV which he found to be 90% unreadable due to all the jargon within it. James was visibly upset at being labelled a joker throughout the series and declared he’d be devastated if the interviews were the end of the process for him.
Kate Walsh, polished as ever, came across as very robotic according to several of the interviewers. Her responses to the questions were correct ones but delivered in a very rehearsed, controlled manner. She slipped up slightly when questioned her about her dread of running an all-female team and when she said she had a right to whinge and moan herself sometimes, was reminded that was the one thing she objected to in working with women. Claude said she was Little Miss Perfect, “I see great answers from you but no dynamics, no passion.”
The interviewers reported back to Sir Alan, Nick and Margaret and found both positive and negative things to say about all five of them. Sir Alan was concerned that Debra was a leopard who wouldn’t change her spots and would carry on upsetting others, he worried whether Yasmina was in the process for the right reason, already being a successful businesswoman, he also worried that Kate was lacking passion, that James was too much of a corporate man to fit into his organisation and was reminded that Lorraine would probably drive him mad!
Finally it was decision time and Sir Alan took no time in firing James first, reducing a couple of the girls to tears. After a short break the four girls returned to the boardroom where Sir Alan then fired Lorraine, telling her he’d seen her having an altercation with others at least three times and wasn’t happy. Kate was informed that she would be in the final and for a minute it seemed that Debra was going to be chosen over Yasmina, “There’s nothing between you,” but Sir Alan then told her, “You won’t last ten minutes in any company with your attitude,” and picked Yasmina as the second finalist.
Don’t forget the final of The Apprentice is on BBC1 this coming Sunday evening, 7th June at 9 pm and in the meanwhile you can discuss the show in The Apprentice forum