Go Ladies!

Continuing with my weekly blogs about The Apprentice, tonights show was what I guess you'd call the semi final, as the last four candidates were put through gruelling interviews, and finally two of them were shown the door.

In the 'aftershow' someone said it was more like an interrogation than an interview, and it was certainly tough, probing the weaknesses and inconsistencies in some of the CVs. I'm not sure you'd get away with that style in any organisation that I've worked in, but it certainly cut through some of the blag. I think my personal favourite was 'I get along with everyone' 'well, you're not getting along with me!' It punctured a few pretensions. One thing that did surprise me was just how little research some of the candidates had done about the organisation that they wanted to work in.

Another surprise was the outcome. For a few weeks I've had my eye on Ruth and Paul for the final, but Paul fell at the final hurdle - primarily I think because of the blag, and because he hadn't been in the board room enough for Alan Sugar to get a feel for what he was like. The one that surprised me was Michelle, who had hardly shone earlier in the series, and now she seems to be the front runner.

What I am pleased about is that it's two women in the final - early in the series, it seemed that a woman would get fired every week, but two have now gone through to the very last stage. I'm not sure I'd want to work with either of them, but at least with Ruth what you see is what you get. I'm less sure of Michelle, but I have a sneaky feeling that she may have played a very careful game, and just pull it off.