Why ‘The Apprentice’ interview candidates needed media training

If only those ‘Apprentice’ candidates last night, struggling with the interview task, had had media training. Then, the outcome could have been very different, as they might not have fallen into so many of the traps. Watching it made me realise how many of the points we teach have wider application in terms of general communications skills. As we drum home, preparation is all. Clearly some of last night’s victims hadn’t done theirs, like sweet Joanna, who didn’t know Lord Sugar’s companies. Others should have predicted more of the likely lines of questioning, and had answers prepared. Have evidence to back up your assertions – we tell ’em that. Unlike Chris, who made great play of his ‘revered scholarship’ – which turned out simply to mean that he did well in his A-levels. Don’t tell fibs to a journalist because they can always come back to haunt you – well, the same could have been said of preening ego Stuart Baggs, who exaggerated things on his CV and mistakenly thought he could get away with it. Ah well, it made good telly!