The Sheriff and his Deputy are back in town

Sammi Edwards — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:30:48 +0000

Another series of The Apprentice has flown by this year and we are starting to get to grips with the types of candidates that Sir Alan is looking to hand over a six figure salary and swish London job to after a series of gruelling business tasks and boardroom bashings.

Do the words hard-nosed, deceitful, bullish and downright rude come into your head as well?

My interest is not in these latest recruits, all with their own eccentric ways (Pants Man – need I say more). My intrigue lies with Mr Sugar and one half of his dynamic duo on the show, semi-retired PR practitioner, Nick Hewer.

Drafted in by the big man himself at the very outset to assist with a “small” television project, we are now five series down the line and have seen, over time, more of his characteristics and personality bubble out.

Quirky facial expressions are his trademark, but I think it took a lot more than these simple twitches for Sir Alan to trust him with the public relations side of his multi-million pound organisation, Amstrad. Nick understood the needs of Sir Alan very early on and knew how best to handle his technological empire over the years, cementing both their professional relationship and friendship and ensuring the trust was of high priority.

This should always be the backbone characteristic of any PR practitioner – to have the ability to successfully communicate with his or her client in a way that seems unforced and fluid. Without telling every PR practitioner in the business how to suck eggs, it’s something that in this digital age of doing PR needs to remain as top priority.

Looking how we can maintain this in the 21st century Tweeting and Facebook communicating ways, we need to constantly ensure the client is happy and getting the most out of their PR. So, even if it’s just a simple phone call to see how everything is going, it could swing the relationship in the right way.

However, if there’s one thing we may have underestimated about Nick, it’s his apparent effect on the opposite sex. As noted by glamorous Apprentice finalist, Debra Barr appeal to the ladies – although I’m sure that wasn’t one of the main reasons why Sir Alan appointed him as a ‘close aide’.

Work Experience at HRO’C

Izzie Barber — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:34:09 +0000

When you hear the words ‘work experience’ in an all girls’ school, you get many different reactions to being “out in the real world”, as the teachers like to call it.

“Yesssss, no more school for two weeks.”
“I’m going to the zoo because I want to be a hippo.”
“Oh no, I’ve got to work with my dad at his office where everyone is over 60 and grey.”
“Good, a chance to buy some more clothes”

Nevertheless, we were told to be organised in the middle of September for something that we would be doing, what, 9 months later? So, as usual, there were the incredibly over-organised ones who came in the next day with it sorted and there were the others who had only just been accepted into their placements last week. Amazingly, I was not the latter.

Churches, schools, airports, “boring old” offices, zoos, banks, shops, car dealers, estate agents, garden centres, hotels, vets, hospitals, doctors, BBC, law courts, theatres and the sewers are just a few of the weird and wonderful work experience placements that come out of Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls each year.

Some people get great places such as Cosford Air Base or Kerrang Radio but with the tight grasp of Health and Safety of my school, there are only a bunch of places where you can actually be hands-on. Hopefully the one poor person at the sewers is thanking their lucky stars for the over-protectiveness of schools. Then, there are those poor few that get stuck with something the school sort out like stacking chairs in a church or filing papers in the school office. Ha.

Luckily, I think mine is definitely more towards the “great places” end of the stick. I bet you everyone else has to wear a suit and, hey, there are no boring old people over 60!

Initially, I imagined HRO’C to be quite formal with lots of old people in grey business suits and briefcases in a huge office with big, clumpy computers at every desk, but instead of big, clumpy computers, everyone is “down with it” and has a MAC.

As I am interested in either journalism or medicine, which are completely different careers, having a week at HRO’C has been a very valuable experience. I have done things I wouldn’t have otherwise done and learnt things that I wouldn’t have otherwise known. Did you know that the horse food market is very competitive?

The thing I like the most about HRO’C is the very informal and laid back atmosphere around the office. Also, if I hadn’t had a place in such a great company as HRO’C, I would have worked with my sister at her office. Guess what she does?

She works in PR.

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The Sheriff and his Deputy are back in town

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Work Experience at HRO’C

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