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!