Howard was fired in The Apprentice UK Series 5 Episode 10 due to his unrisky strategy as project manager (ironically, it was the other team, which won, that actually took no risks), while slow burner Lorraine somehow made her way into the final 5.
It’s interview day. Lorraine says she’s scared, with good reason, but indicates the others are not so scared.
Yasmina has only had one or two interviews in her life. She plans to be absolutely brilliant.
Debra realizes she’s made few friends along the way. Her theory is that people dislike her due to her success. My theory is people dislike her because she’s a bitch.
Lorraine considers her CV to be a bit “watery” because she really hasn’t done much in the past decade since she had two kids during that time.
Sir Alan tells them that 1 or 3 of them will be sent home today. His panel consists of Borden Tkachuk of Viglen Computers, Claude Littner who runs companies or something, Karen Brady of Birmingham City Football Club, and city litigator Alan Watts.
Yasmina says that she sometimes can annoy people because she tends to very good at everything. Oh geez. Debra, likewise, is full of herself.
Claude wants to know if Lorraine’s a bit delusional.
James is told that his CV is exceptional. Exceptionally bad. Nobody outside the telecoms industry would understand what he’s talking about.
Borden asks Kate why she’s there since she’s already doing quite well for herself. She responds that she’s looking for a new industry with room for growth, hopefully up to director level within 8 years.
Claude wants to know if Yasmina knows the difference between different types of profit, since she’s written 4.5% gross profit in her resume but now is coming back to say 4.5% net profit. Is she talking nonsense? He’s taken the liberty of getting her business account information. Much to her chagrin, this is public information. They tell a different story than she’s telling about sales and profit. If she doesn’t know the answers to these questions about how much she’s made, that’s a sad indictment of her business.
Lorraine’s CV, meanwhile, has incorrect dates. She’s worked at her current job for one year. She put two. She calls the interview horrendous, but it’s made her think about her CV for the future.
Claude would struggle to consider Debra a team player.
As for James’ CV, he says that he can bring ignorance to the table.
Kate would have a problem working with an all female team. She’d rather work with men, which she’s used to doing, due to the emotional issues that go along with working with women.
Alan has followed up with references. One of Debra’s called her loud, obnoxious, and inexperienced, with a foul mouth. She acknowledges she’s told people to F off at work. Karen runs into the same issue. Another person who works with her calls her aggressive and rude, and lots of people hate her.
Kate’s relationship with Philip has come to the surface again. It only came up originally because Lorraine was desperate to not be fired, and never did prove to be an actual problem.
Alan has a problem that Yasmina asked her mother to remortgage her house to get the business started.
Claude thinks that Kate’s an incredibly competent interviewee with great answers, but he’s concerned there’s not much passion behind that.
Once the interviews are done, the four advisors are able to give their input to Sir Alan.
First is Lorraine. Alan couldn’t shut her up. He found it difficult to get past the talking. If you ask her one question, she’ll still be going ten minutes later without actually telling you anything. Her “special gift” is a combination of intuition and mind reading. In Lorraine’s defense, Margaret says that she has made the right call a few times that others have mised, but her flaw is that she can’t get over the fact that someone else makes a choice she doesn’t like. Claude doesn’t think she could cope with the pressure. Alan thinks she’d drive Sir Alan mad.
Next is Yasmina. Claude likes that she’s actually got entrepreneurial spirit, although she’s not all that credible. Alan, however, felt she came across quite well, but why does she want to work for Sir Alan when she just started her own business a year ago? He and Claude are concerned that the mother put up her house, a big risk, and in return received 1% ownership in the business. Karen considers this comment to be unfair, and it turned out to be a good risk. Sir Alan and Nick are onboard with this theory that, if your children ask you to do something to help them, you do it. Karen could see Yasmina fitting in really well.
Then there’s James. He didn’t have a good interview with Karen, and he admitted it to her when she asked him how he thought it went. He couldn’t stop joking and was touchy. Borden defends him saying that some of his achievements in business have been quite good. Nick thinks he’s lucky to have gotten as far as he has.
Karen was really impressed by Kate. She was very good at answering the questions, albeit perhaps a bit too robotic. It seems she’s just not an emotional person, which perhaps is why she doesn’t like working with women. Karen doesn’t think Kate will let Sir Alan down.
Debra’s references were particularly brutal. These are references she chose herself. Alan’s not convinced she’s actually been changed by this process like she says she has been. Borden says that she will deliver, but will probably try to crush and upset others in the process. Claude likes that she’s young and probably can change. They agree she comes over as very mature despite being 23.
With that done, the candidates return to the boardroom.
Sir Alan wants James to drop his defensive act because people do like him. Debra needs to conquer herself before taking on the world. Kate takes the robotic comment as a compliment because that’s how you should be in an interview. Lorraine has been more critical of her colleagues than anyone else. The question mark with Yasmina is that she’s in business already, so why does she want to work with someone else? She basically admits she plans to work for Sir Alan for a few years, then ditch him to go back to working for herself.
Because he’s a corporate man, an environment that apparently doesn’t exist in Sir Alan’s business, James has been fired. After that’s done, they take a rest because the others are obviously getting emotional.
When they return, they’re told that two more people will be fired.
Sir Alan’s already heard Lorraine’s sad story enough times, so her telling it again won’t help her any. The concern with her is that she doesn’t get along with anyone and would rather fight than work with her team. Her response to this is that she should have pushed her instincts more, but the problem was she kept pushing her instincts long after everyone else already moved on without her. With that said, Lorraine has been fired.
Although she claims she’s desperate to work for Sir Alan, Yasmina’s already running her own business. As for Debra, all of her good sides pale in comparison to her attitude.
Then there’s Kate. With no further ado, she’s in the final. There may be criticism she’s too robotic, but she’s been the obvious frontrunner all along.
So that leaves it between Yasmina and Debra for the final spot. This is the tough decision for him. Debra has been fired. Now it’s just a question of whether she can actually change her spots. That means Yasmina will be advancing to the final with Kate.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Apprentice UK Series 5 Episode 12, where we will find out who The Apprentice UK Series 5 winner is.