So apologies folks, the Blog has been a bit quiet since the new year, but we said we'd come back with a bang and announce our Career Makeover Competition. The prize will offer you everything you need to kickstart your career and all you need to do is go to our Facebook page, "like" the page and fill in the application form.

Be sure to get your entries in quickly as the closing date is the 29/02/2012.

Full details below, Good Luck!

Congrats to Zara on winning the Young Apprentice last night. She was the clear front runner from the start and I had her picked to win as soon as I started watching: 

I have to say, however, James certainly didn’t go down without a fight. I actually thought he performed better than Zara did in the final task. His game concept was brilliant and I think it’s the first time anyone on any version of the apprentice has put together a good viral ad.

Zara had her usual determination and focus and she certainly had a good idea for her game and how the character could develop. I’m not sure if she drew the short stick when it came to the game designers though, because I thought her game looked pretty poor when we saw the finished product.

The thing about Zara was though, she has built up so much credibility during the previous tasks that it would have taken some kind of monumental success on James’ part (or a monumental failure on Zara’s) for him to be declared the winner. You can just tell that Zara will be a huge success at whatever she does. James certainly gave Sir Alan a tough decision though.

So do you agree with Alan’s decision or do you think James actually did enough to win? And what did you think of the games they came up with? Let us know in the comments section.

Here are some tweets we liked for added inspiration:

@rickedwards1 is Mohammed back in his pimpin' white suit? I love that kid so much. Imagine he'll claim to have won in the boardroom later #youngapprentice

@JaackMaate I'm glad Zara won #YoungApprentice maybe now she can buy herself a new dress

@HarryMaxwell Not even that pig suit could stop me schmoozing the execs at the event.. They loved shaking my hand! #winning #youngapprentice

Hi all, just a quick post in case you didn't see this article on our Career Centre. Laura McGrath, owner of Interview Techniques, has kindly shared some of the funny moments that have occured in interviews and it gave us a good giggle here:

Have a look at the article by clicking the link below and let us know your funny interview moments in the comments section!

http://www.recruitireland.com/careercentre/interviewadvice/Funny-Interview-moments/4692

We all know and love this task. Send them off with a list and a map and watch them suffer! It was probably even more difficult for this lot because not having access to Google must be akin to losing a limb.

Sir Alan wasn’t making things easy for them either; the list of items they had to find sounded like he was putting together the worst Halloween costume in the world: A Dashiki, a “Justin Bieber” sized suit, a pocket watch, red stilettos……whatever you’re into there Alan.

I don’t think any of the candidates really showed themselves to be master negotiators but there were some good deals done, and some not so good deals. Lizzie probably had the biggest blunder of the day by paying full price for her stilettos and the fine for this played a big part in her team losing the task.

So the big question going into the boardroom was if there was any possible way that Harry M could survive, having lost 6 tasks in a row. And then Lizzie decides not to

bring him back to the boardroom! Lucky escape Harry! And was it just me or did anyone else think that Hayley wasn’t the slightest bit disappointed to be fired?

So we are down to 6 and from the preview of next week’s show it looks like Sir Alan will be cutting it down to the final 2. So who do you think is making the final?

I’m still backing Zara but it might not be as easy for her as I expected. Both James and Harry H (the other one) have been quite impressive lately. I just hope Haya doesn’t win and I’ll let the tweeps explain why below:

@DanHutton : How can you not know who Hendrix is? Even if you're 16 years old, your parents have a duty to educate you musically #youngapprentice

@Lucas and Walliams: Warning, Zara will be wearing that white dress in the boardroom again next week #YoungApprentice

 @Jamie Sterling : #youngapprentice proving that the ONLY use for a Yellow Pages EVER is when you're told you cannot under any circumstance use the internet

(I’ve waited for many years for the opportunity to use that title…….)

This week our Young Apprentices were challenged to produce the next antiperspirant which would be targeted at their own age group. In addition, my two stand-out candidates, Zara and Harry M, were going to be the Project Managers for the teams.

Zara was once again very impressive. Calculating, tactical, focused. Harry M, well, I may have been wrong about him. He went on a bit of a power trip straight away and every sentence he spoke began with “I’m Project Manager ….”. Obviously, that wasn’t the best way to get his team on side and unfortunately, the task turned into a bit of a mess for them.

Zara, on the other hand, was calm and collected throughout. She seemed like she would have been quite happy to take on the task on her own. Harry (that is, the other Harry) was excellent at the presentation for Zara’s team but her other colleagues Haya and Hayley didn’t seem like much help during the task

With all the unrest in Harry M’s team they ended up with a brand name and an ad which didn’t match in any way and we knew they were all headed for the boardroom. 

Now, at this point it’s fair to say, Harry M was clearly to blame for the loss of the task and deserved to be fired. However, I think we were all hoping that Gbemi was going to be the one to go. Why? Well two things: 1: She just could not accept her packaging design was poor, and 2: She sounded like she had a severely blocked nose for the entire program. I could even forgive the whole packaging thing but unless someone handed her a tissue, she had to go.

So, at this point, can anyone beat Zara or is she running away with this?

Leave your comments below.

Some brilliant Twitter comments as well last night:

@Shouting at Cows 

"“Kids today are image obsessed”, says Lizzie, as the camera cuts to bank-manager-turned-hobo James" #YoungApprentice

@John O'Shea 

Think my TV has developed a fault. It appears to be showing Harry not being fired. #youngapprentice

@ Melody Hossaini 

Bless Lord Sugar bopping his head to 'Get on the floor' #YoungApprentice

@Perri shakes-drayton 

Sorry but Gbemi sounds as if she needs to blow her nose #youngapprentice

(Including this comment simply to support what I said)

I'd like to start with a testimonial which the BBC may feel free to use if they happen to be reading: “Since I switched to the Junior Apprentice, from Ireland’s version of The Apprentice, I shout at my TV a lot less”.

Yes, the young ones continued to put us to shame last night. Not only do they all seem to be brighter and more professional than our lot, they are all more entertaining as well. 

The candidates were targeting over 50’s for last night’s task. If there were any over 50’s viewers watching last night I’m sure they were all thoroughly insulted within the first 5 minutes at the young candidate’s impressions of the older generation. But regardless, put them in front of product retailers and they positively beamed enthusiasm!

None of the products available were exactly clear winners but after losing the pitch for the trolleys, Haya’s team ended up going with the bird-box which was never going to be a huge seller. Harry M ended up saving the day by selling 5 of the bird-boxes but even he admitted he was quite lucky with it. Like him or not, that’s two impressive sales performances in two weeks. 

Unfortunately though, my pick for the winner, Zara, didn’t manage to sell a thing in this task! I’m still sticking with my choice though, she’ll be back.

Things were looking very bad for Haya when the candidates got back to the boardroom. At the last moment, she looked like she was mentally packing her bags and Lewis looked like he was in the middle of a huge sigh of relief…….and then BANG, Alan Sugar changes his tune at the last moment and Lewis is walking out the door.

Once again, I did switch over to check out how Bill & Co were getting on and things aren’t improving much there from what I can see? Am I the only one giving up on it? Anyone really enjoying it?

Oh and apparently the name of the show has been changed to “Young Apprentice” as opposed to “Junior”. But I’m old and set in my ways…….

Here’s what the Tweeps say:

@jackwhitehall 

I think now Frankies been kicked off X Factor they should put him straight onto junior apprentice, spice it up!

@NandiniShukla95

It's weird how all these kids on Junior Apprentice are my age and have made a business and achieved so much, then there's me

@sixthformpoet

Young Apprentice and I'm A Celebrity are trending alongside one another, just as Nostradamus predicted.

Firstly, thanks to those who responded to the poll or left comments on Facebook in relation to whether you’d be watching the Junior Apprentice on BBC or sticking with Bill & Co on TV3. The result was a resounding “Both”, which was all the excuse I needed to switch over and check out the Junior Apprentice show for the first time last night. (I gave myself last week off, what with it being a bank holiday and all).

So I tuned in last night expecting it to be slightly better than the Irish version but nothing too impressive because, let’s face it, the candidates are just teenagers. Having watched it, I actually think most of these juniors would run rings around the mad lot that Bill is currently working with. Even as junior candidates most of them are far more professional, better presented and actually have more business acumen than the current batch of Irish candidates. Furthermore, the whole show is more enjoyable than the two hours of what feels like teeth pulling on TV3. Bill, I hope you are taking notes somewhere.

I haven’t had much positive to say about the Irish candidates but there’s actually a couple of standouts on the Junior show already for me, even after having only watched one episode. Harry M, who managed to sell the ugliest plant I’ve ever seen through persistence and a little luck, and also Zara, who was so impressive I think she could actually win the Irish show without much effort. I’m going to go ahead and pick Zara as the winner of the Junior Apprentice. And we welcome more predictions from you on Facebook or in the comments section so don’t be shy…….particularly if you agree with me.

Once the juniors show was finished, I switched over to Bill and Co in time to see Eugene’s team had lost the task and that the other team made a staggering €53,000 worth of sales…..of chocolate bars? Did I pick the wrong week to switch?

Here’s some comments from the Twitter folk and please share your thoughts too!

@brokenbottleboy "There's not a lot of numbers in economics…" Join the Greek government James, you'll go far #apprentice

@robyninatizzy Why did was last weeks task on the #apprentice to make something for kids? Their barely out of childhood them selves :')

@CharlieWaters After he ballsed up two-out-of-three pitches last week, is it really wise to send Lewis to the flower pitches? #apprentice

Ok, we are 4 episodes in and I really don't think this series of the The Apprentice on TV3 is going to improve. I think many of you will agree that last night's show was particularly bad and I'm finding 2 hours of The apprentice a bit much to say the least. 

To make things worse, Alan Sugar has only gone and started the Junior Apprentice on BBC at the same time on the same night!

So loyal reader/s, if you do exist, please help me decide whether I should continue to stick with Bill and TV3 in an act of unparalleled patriotism and hope that it gets better? Or, will I switch over to BBC and see what Sir Alan's juniors have to offer?

Cast your vote on our facebook page or in the comments section below and have your say!

Ok, since the new series has started, I haven’t been convinced that these candidates are really Ireland’s best & brightest. However, after last night’s show I’m starting to think Bill has actually changed the format to a documentary, following mental people wearing suits.

All started off well enough with an exciting challenge to create a Mobile App for Unislim. The brief from Unislim was possibly a little demanding but it would certainly give the candidates a little scope for creativity. Then, Bill swapped around some of the team members, just to make it difficult for me to keep track of which team was which….thanks Bill.

It must have been daunting for Louise to come from Spirit, the “young ones”, and be PM for Zest, whose members were probably all older and more experienced. She handled the team well overall apart from Chris, who continues to be the most annoying candidate on the show. He probably did have the makings of some good ideas last night but nobody could stand to listen to him.

All this paled in comparison to Eoin, who was visibly crumbling as PM for Zest from the moment he started. His strategy seemed to be “ah sure that’ll do” and he can’t claim to have put himself under any pressure because his teammates were doing all the work, but nonetheless he became “flustered”. Next thing you know he decides he can’t take it and hops into a taxi and out of the show! You would think he’d have the decency to wait till the boardroom but he probably knew he would have been hung out to dry had he shown his face in there.

Incidentally, last night Connor mentioned that his business is selling wreaths and Christmas trees. Last week we heard Yinka’s business was based on selling hair extensions. No disrespect intended, but these are hardly the innovative and exciting business ideas I was expecting would be necessary to get through the screening process.

Anyway, amongst all this madness, Ruth had let her mouth run away during her team’s presentation and Bill did not take kindly to this when the candidates got back to the boardroom. Both teams had performed poorly, neither paid proper attention to the brief or came up with anything innovative and in the end Ruth was the one sent packing but really, it could have been anyone on the team.

Can anyone pick a winner from this bunch? Leave us your comment s below.

Finally, some twitter comments for inspiration

ederoiste:
#tv3theapprentice A rich tapestry of brainpower Bill has the pleasure of choosing from.

berminghamlaura:
If it were me I'd stop saying Motivation in a UniSlim challenge!

kealycopy:
Was Eoin a joke candidate or was he for real? Mild Tourettes perhaps?#apprentice #tv3

You want to call the CD what now?

It was nice to see the task was a little bit different, bringing in the music element, but apart from that it was pretty much business as usual. I was delighted to see that Chris was going to be PM for team Spirit, simply because I knew he’d be in the firing line at the end. I’ve taken a very strong disliking to him very quickly but Bill, Jackie, Brian and the rest of the candidates don’t seem to have spotted how annoying he is yet. Hopefully it’s just a matter of time.

Joanne was picked as the PM for team Zest and she was the natural choice having had some album launch experience. Things seemed to be working very well for her at the start. Everyone was seemed organised, they had a strong image for their CD sleeve and the name was good. But she’s clearly not a fan of the show otherwise she would have never uttered the words; “Ah sure, we don’t need the logo”. Things started to turn for the worse from there.

However, nothing was going to match the misplaced optimism of Chris and team Spirit. Chris seemed to think everything was going well, even when the other team got most of the bands that Spirit wanted for their CD. Yinka was convinced that her graphic design was superb and the majority of the team thought that “Toe Tapping Talents” was a good name!

There was no doubt Yinka was going to get the boot this week but I don’t think she was all that disappointed. I watched some of the “You’re Fired” show and she was quite happy to have gotten some good publicity for her business and not that bothered that she had gone. Incidentally, I wouldn’t have thought that her hair extensions business was 1: Going to be all that appealing to Bill or 2: a multi-billion euro idea, but she could prove me wrong yet.

So let us know what you think of this year’s candidates? Is there anyone you think could be a winner? Does anyone else dislike Chris as much as me? Leave your comments below.

And here are some comments from Twitter for inspiration…..

@Jim_Sheridan
Looking at Bills hairline I think he might enjoy investing in a wig company, I think Yinka is safe :) #Tv3apprentice

@Kitsgirl1
Getting a bunch of suits to put together a music CD is like asking the Taliban to organise a hen night #tv3apprentice

@IrishPresident
I think I'll enter Apprentice 2012. Wearing a blindfold. And earplugs. And hands tied behind my back. I'd probably still win. #tv3apprentice