Taking facts about her new job from The Sun may not be the best idea - News International doesn't have the best reputation for accurate journalism at the moment!

I can't be bothered with the EA/PA argument anymore mate - I've told you what I've seen in my firm (one of the big four) and dozens of our big clients, and I'll leave it at that. I'm happy that working personally with some well known CEO's of large corporations that I know fully what an EA is.

There was also an EA that posted on here halfway through the series and she described her job as 'organisational and administrative'. Vital, complex, but not assisting the setting the direction of the company or making major company decisions.

The food industry is often thought to be recession-proof, because customers need to eat in good times and bad. However today Superquinns supermarket chain with 24 stores in Ireland went into receivership owing 400 million, seeking a buyer, and with 2,800 jobs in question.

The real world is not a TV episode.
On the losing team one of you will be fired.

funny how she always kept on saying i wanted to open my own business. then she goes back to her former company

Best of luck to her though

I find this PA thing really annoying, it was obvious from the interview with her boss that she occupied a 'Chief of Staff' type position. And you don't get a promotion from PA to managing x thousand staff just cos of a good performance on a TV show. This role is widely known in Investment Banking / Financial Services where the divisional heads have a right hand person, who keeps all the plates spinning and deals with most of the tactical stuff while they do the strategic thinking and trouble shooting. Still one thing is obvious from these forums - job title really matters and you should avoid anything ending in Assistant if you want to be taken seriously!

Yes, absolutely.

I was saying that she has a big and proper job on her hands.

Having worked my way up from salesman to Marketing and Sales Director in a multi-national corporation with one of the best known brand names out there, I know all about the real world.

Thanks god I don't work under that pressure any more.

Accordingly, I have posted elsewhere why I watch the programme and what I like and dislike about it.

(Did I sound abit like Melody there?)

I don't understand how this is good for her, did she not go on the apprentice to start her own company........

This just says more about her that actually at the end of the day she's not an entrepreneur and should just work for some one else in her life.

There is nothing wrong with that but why go on the apprentice in the first place??????

Hopefully next year there will be 16 people who are all entrepreneurial with a hunger to run their own business and no employee types.

I want to see people who have stated business and failed and have experience of doing that.

Helen was actually quite naive and weak when it came to cold strategic thinking from scratch when she was not told what she should be doing. something which some one who has experience of running a business would be better skilled at.

I am afraid you would not sound a bit like Melody
unless you can list 11 titles you have won.

I think this year was bound to have problems, largely because of the change in format. I'm not sure that people like Helen, Jim and Natasha fully understood what they were entering, otherwise they probably wouldn't of done it.

Next year I'd say there will be more self-employed types, and a couple who have launched products. As to their previous success in business, I'm not expecting too much.

As a matter of interest, to those who know, what salary would a genuine executive PA in a company the size of Greggs be paid? And the retail head of Greggs South East Division? No doubt there would be performance bonuses and stock option incentives.

Greggs area managers are on around £30k basics. Then there are regional ops managers above them, and then the regional heads sit above them. I've just checked Greggs website and there are seven regional heads. I'd hazard a guess that the regiional heads are probably on around £50k, maybe more, but not any or much less.

Exec Assistant to the CEO there? Mid to late thirties I'd guess

Goldielox, a gold medal for your hands-on research. You're hired !

Helen on £50K plus bonuses?
Helen come and work for me. On my knees, Helen, come and work with me.
Alright then, I'll join the queue of 100 bearing offers.

I don't think she knew that about herself.

I think getting to the final was immensely valuable to her, partly because it exposed the weakness of her business plan. If she had got investment from elsewhere and gone ahead with it instead of going on the show, she could have wasted years of time and a lot of money. I also think she learned more about herself and what she is and isn't good at.

Also we have to remember that she lost. If she'd won, she'd have felt a lot more upbeat, and, having made the leap, might have found herself to be entrepreneurial after all. (Albeit perhaps with her second business plan.)

Although on my Ebay business, I do send items world-wide.

Does that mean I have a GLOBAL business?

Melody would say:

There are footprints on the moon,
and opportunities in the Milky Way.

She admitted herself that she is now probably more suited to a job role rather than being an entrepreneur

Personally this makes me laugh because from what i saw of helen i honestly think anyone could do.

Sure, she got a 240k deal - but give me an excellent product and meetings with top retailers and im pretty sure I also could get a huge order

And this also led to people ranting and raving about how great Greggs is. Personally I think greggs is terrible. Cheap nasty food and the cheapness is reflected in the quality!

Cold pasties, not even filled pasties, cheap bread in the sandwiches and icing on the cakes is a mouthful of butter. As you can tell i dont shop there any more!

But i do wonder if people have the same taste buds - i mean surely they are tasting the same rubbish i am? (and it wasnt a one off, the food was like it every time ive been there)

Good luck to the saucy minx I say, nice to see a great piece of ass in that role.
Too many of those female managerial posts are occupied by fat assed, be-cankled, puckered up faced, trousered trollopes taking it out on the rest of the world because they have a face like a bag of spanners.

Helen is a talented beautilicious sex pot

^this - I agree

Yes I quite agree. Likewise Tom would be a nice bit of eye candy to have around one's office. Far too many of managerial posts are occupied by sexist and deluded pot bellied, slack jawed balding lechers taking it out on the world because they don't get enough at home and have a small....

Having lead a sheltered life, I've never heard of Greggs! Honestly! So, reassuring to know I haven't missed much!

Greggs started out in the North - but have been marching South for the past decade - coming soon to a highstreet near you no doubt!

When I heard that she had this 'massive' promotion and that it was 'what she wanted anyway' a tiny part of myself wondered if that was why she went on the show to give her employers a nudge especially when I heard her business proposal - surely she wasn't serious about that? That's the sort of thing I could do working from home part time. (neither of us having any connections, lol)

That's Greggs South East stuffed then

Helen now Head of Retail at Greggs SE

Think of all the pies and steak bakes she will get as well!
She'll be twice the woman she was in next to no time

Hehe.

I'm glad she's got something out of this as she should have won hands down. She blew it in the final episode. Totally blew it.