Stupid questions? Ask them
– Apprentice interrogator Mike Soutar’s interview advice
As one of Lord Sugar’s dreaded interrogators, Mike Soutar can find things out about candidates they probably don’t know themselves.
During last week’s interview episode of The Apprentice he helped grill five contestants and whittle their number down to two.
His excruciating crossexamination had viewers wincing, but the Dundonian media executive admitted he doesn’t feel sorry for the flustered candidates – saying it’s his job to turn the bluster into fluster.
“I’ll always give someone the opportunity to come clean and, if they don’t, I will be merciless,” said Mike, the chief executive officer of the Evening Standard in London. “I’d only feel sorry for someone if I felt I was being unfair to them. But I’m always scrupulously fair.
“I really try to be respectful, and respect the process they’ve gone through up to that point is exhausting.
“And just at the point where they can almost smell the money they have to meet me and my interviewing colleagues. Crikey!
“I genuinely admire them for doing that.”
Mike believes avoiding the interrogation pitfalls can be straightforward.
“People tend to get caught when they pretend to know things that they don’t.
“My advice is to not be scared of not knowing things, and to not be scared of asking what seem like simple, dumb questions – it’s difficult to go wrong with that approach.”
On Wednesday Scarlett AllenHorton will go head to head with Carina Lepore to become Lord Sugar’s Apprentice and win £250,000 of investment.