Week three saw the search for an Account Manager for a digital agency, Wow Zone, in Birmingham, and Concierge Coordinator for On Air Dining, offering quality food on private flights from Stansted.
One of the keys stand outs from the show was the Graduate job search – no experience, no role, no-one offering the opportunity means no chance of getting said experience – it is a chicken or egg situation. What is the best way of offering that foot in the door in the first instance, who is giving them a chance.
Wow Zone was set up 12 years by two former business rivals. They were searching for ‘a rough diamond’ who can be developed and polished up, someone with real passion and drive to develop. The two guys managed to stump all candidates with one simple question – what does URL stand for? While they all knew what a URL is, none of them were able to answer the question. For future reference, it stands for Universal Resource Locator – every day is a school day!
All candidates were asked to give a presentation on the spot, showing how quickly and effectively, or not, they can think on their feet. Anna from London was selected for the role in the end, due to her drive, attitude and assertive confidence. She was looking to move from London to get out of her comfort zone and get her career properly underway – good luck Anna...
On Air Dining was set up by an ex SAS interrogator and ex chef, looking to offer the very best of food and meal options to discerning, and generally very wealthy, people on-board flights. They were looking for someone who is super organised, with a passion for food and who is willing to go that extra mile for clients. It was rather amusing to see the candidates try and guess what the food they were asked about actually was, especially foie gras which only one person managed to get right!
There was a hilarious Spanish woman, but the guys were not sure that the company was ready for her whirlwind character in the office. A number of random questions were thrown in to the interviews for good measure and some of the reactions were comical. In the end they hired two people, an ex professional dancer and an unemployed gentleman, as they really liked them both. The company is growing so quickly and they felt they would be crazy to let a really good candidate go – we wish them all the very best of luck.
All in all, another week of interesting, funny and uncomfortable interviewees, with some heart wrenching stories thrown in for good measure. Also, again highlighting, as every week, the need to prepare for interviews and ensuring your CV is up to scratch!
Next week? A luxury assistant event planner and a worker for a waste disposal company…we cannot wait.