Office 2010 Activation blog the-apprentice-s-guide
 

Leaving the cafeteria after lunch right now, I observed the front web page of these days;s USA These days: 10 Lessons of 'The Apprentice'. I always find humor in how the American public learns many of their life lessons and professional skills through television (law from Ally McBeal, forensics from CSI, psychiatry from Frasier … And wouldn;t it be fun to do a show about recruiters? Man, what would we call that show?!) Anyway, in this case, I really have learned a lot from The Apprentice … But as I;ve discussed in an earlier post and Heather mentioned over on her blog, most incidents have been lessons in “what not to do.” Of The Apprentice candidates; many offenses, the one that stood out most to me was their collective inability to answer a question directly. As a viewer, this infuriated me. As an employee in a large corporation, this infuriated me. But most of all as a professional interviewer, this infuriated me. People – learn how to answer the question asked of you! I can;t tell you how much it bugs me when people either 1) have their own agenda when answering a question and 2) try to qualify a simple answer with useless data. I see it around Microsoft all the time. That;s just the way people operate. But wouldn;t it be a wonderful world if you were able to ask a question and get a clear, concise, and focused answer? Productivity would increase tenfold! As an interviewer, I look for candidates who exhibit this type of communication – clear, concise, and focused. Don;t tell me about a project I didn;t ask about. That;s not what I want to know. Don;t overload your answer with so much unnecessary information that I lose sight of what I asked in the beginning. I;ve asked a simple yes or no question before and waited 5 minutes before I get the answer. Actually, that happens a lot. Those boardroom situations on The Apprentice always raised my blood pressure. I found myself yelling at the screen, “Fire her! Fire her!” every time Heidi said, “No, I like Omarosa. She;s nice.” No, you don;t,Office 2010 Activation, and no, she isn;t. Just answer the stupid question! I always wondered … if The Donald has the ability to fire whomever he chooses, why can;t he just randomly say, “You;re fired” to one of those people who can;t answer a direct question? Well, they;re all gone now so I guess it all works out in the end. From what I recall anyway, both Bill and Kwame have always held up well under pressure in the boardroom. I guess we;ll have to wait a few more hours to see who the winner is. Living on the West Coast, we see everything in tape delay so I;ll have to do a “media black-out” until the show airs out here. <sigh> gretchen P.S. Go Kwame!