Haha ..... says it all really.

The competition for training contracts in large and medium-sized firms is very tough these days... The last few people I know who got them have either been to Oxbridge, or have Firsts / high 2:1s from other red-brick universities.

But the bottom line is all of those years have been wasted ..... and we moan about University fees being too high. Well don't go then if youre not going to use them!!

Most uni students just use it as an excuse to avoid work for the next 3 years ..... but I digress ......

There seems to be lots of conjecture on here about what Helen's exact role is. I suppose we will never know unless someone who knows her could confirm it.

She's described as an EA to a very senior person at Greggs (not sure if she's ever said if it's the CEO or another exec).

I've got my doubts that she's an EA in the dictionary sense of the word, and I've also said on other threads that I often find EA's to be almost the same as senior PA's anyway - I very very rarely see them involved in any decisions about the company.

There is nothing wrong with being a PA anyway- its a good job.

I feel that Helen's skills are stuck at that kind of job role though and if I was her mate I'd encourage her to do an MBA then move into another part of the firm or move to another job. Unless she is a super-EA already and making decisions about the corporations future - I really doubt this though as she wouldn't be on such a tv show if she's made it so high up in business at such a young age.

Being a High Street solicitor may not be as glamorous or interesting as loads of other jobs.

Well you know it must suck when working as PA in Greggs is a more attractive option LOL!!

Only if that's what you want to think. I don't know what she does but being a solicitor isn't necessarily automatically better.

The top PA positions are respectable jobs, most often held by people with degrees.
Don't think they're as lowly as you imagine.

Only certain people who have law degrees go on to become fully qualified lawyers.
Just having the law degree doesn't mean you should become a lawyer and still means you have a long way to.

She said she trained as a lawyer but didn't like defending criminals so became a poorly paid waitress instead for a couple of years - as if there was no middle ground. I actually thought that weird. Surely there would have been lots of options for a girl with a good degree in law.

better than being a "carboot kevin" like susan is

Isn't it annoying when you spend 3 to 4 years at an institution studying law only to be told at the end that you may need to deal with people who have committed illegal acts and need ...... errrmm... a lawyer.

She's not the brightest spark is she?

Not necessarily - it hones a range of skills that are attractive to non-legal employers too. I am a law graduate myself and while I decided not to become a solicitor, I work in a closely-related field. Many of my other friends who did law degrees are neither solicitors nor barristers.

It's not unusual for people to complete their degrees, but in the process learn that's not something they want to make a career out of.
At that point many take "stopgap" jobs (like Helen's waitress job) while they figure out what they really want to do with their lives.

I certainly did low paid work for a couple of years after my chemistry degree, before taking a career option where I ended up being very successful.
- the stopgap might not look great on a CV, but Its not at all unusual and doesn't necessarily mean you're incapable.

There's a big difference behind her thinking that she could deal with defending guilty people beforehand, and then actually having to do it. I respect her decision, I would not want to defend guilty people either.

I should add, even though I'm not in a field which has much of anything to do with chemistry, university was still a hugely useful experience for me.
I doubt I would have got where I am today without those three years.
I don't think that some people understand that the bredth of things people can potentially get out of university is far greater than the cold hard facts from their courses.

I'm an EA...

I don't have a degree but have worked bloody hard to get where I am.

Its not a crappy role, it's a role where it's up to you to make things happen, and supporting the most senior director(s) within an organisation.

It's certainly not a lowly role.

If I asked a cleaner how important her role was, Im sure she could give me a million and one reasons how important her role was too.

I'm sure youre a lovely person though, so I have no personal malice toward you.

Exactly. Helen strikes me as the classic high achiever who did law because she thought it was something she should do rather than because it was something she particularly wanted to do.

Helen is excessively focused on the task in hand, more so than looking forward, looking around at unrelated info before they are proven to be relevant. She had never heard of the Spaniard Christopher Columbus. She had difficulty retrieving a joke, any joke, because it had no relevance to her objective and dedication. In a former age she might have been a nun.

When striking a duvets deal with the shop it did not occur to her to ask the possibly irrelevant question "What time do you close, do you close at 2pm". On her law degree course she did not see fit to look ahead towards the integrity of her clientele post-qualifying.

In drawing up her business plan she did not include plan B as an addendum in case her concierge service plan A was thrown out as implausible. Even to include a chain of MyPy outlets would have been credible. She and Tom did fantastically well, earning 7 out of 10 in just 2 days. There was detailed P&L, everything had been meticulously worked out beforehand, impressing industry top experts. I would have made a special trip to buy Helen pies from MyPy, Helen biscuits from ASDA.

But Helen had no time for the seemingly irrelevant, irrelevances like jokes, and they became her downfall.

I'm not suprised, nor have I, though maybe she should have known of the Genoan Christopher Columbus

Have you ever worked in a large corporate organization???
PAs at the level Helen was working at don't make the tea and file!

They also don't make key decisions as she would have you believe.

Bear in mind that Greggs is a relative successful company. Bear in mind that this is a woman who thought selling wholesale items to retailers was the best way strategy on margins.

The two don't match. Thats because Greggs are clever enough not to put her anywhere near any of the key decisions.

But Im sure she is very good at filing those key decisions away in a very tidy manner.

Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa, at which time the nation of Italy did not exist. He received funding from the Spanish Queen Isabella and did everythiing in the name of Spain. Doubtful if there were national passports in those days.

Hairsplitters could say Napoleon was not French because he was born in Corsica, Hitler was not German because he was born in Austria, Stalin was not Russian because he was born in Georgia.

Blimmen heck!

Are you free for our pub quiz night, apparently its a History special.

That's a bit harsh, I was not a fan of hers and think Tom/Susan should have won but I would find it hard to come up with a non-dirty joke on the spot in a pressured interview.