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So...what exactly was Elle's job?


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Old 13-11-2015, 03:07
StratusSphere
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I can't believe Sir Alan asked her point blank what she did and what she would do on a Monday morning and she gave an evasive answer. He was literally handing her a chance to say that this task wasn't actually what she did in her job.

The way she put it she's basically paid to be a pair of eyes on site and watch everyone else doing their jobs. I want her job!
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Old 13-11-2015, 03:53
longpiggy
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I can't believe Sir Alan asked her point blank what she did and what she would do on a Monday morning and she gave an evasive answer. He was literally handing her a chance to say that this task wasn't actually what she did in her job.

The way she put it she's basically paid to be a pair of eyes on site and watch everyone else doing their jobs. I want her job!
Its an actual interesting question. I have had to do this in awayday situations. And unless you have experience of being put on the spot and having an answer - for a lot of people it is EXACTLY how Elle reacted - a lot tougher than you expect.

Think its not; DO IT NOW (30 seconds) - were you cogent, or did you cheat. See.

And the thing is what DO you DO, rather than THINK you do - and don't use YOUR business related speak. Do it to someone that has no experience or interest in what you do. Its actually quite tough for most jobs. There will be a smarta.... on later, ok, not talking about you, and suspect your lying in reality.
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Old 13-11-2015, 04:05
longpiggy
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Did you use the words/phrases "facilitate", "endevour", "work with" "strategy" or its derivatives "plan" or its derivatives "co-ordinate" or its derivatives.

Then by definition you failed....
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Old 13-11-2015, 07:28
lammtarra
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The way she put it she's basically paid to be a pair of eyes on site and watch everyone else doing their jobs. I want her job!
Basement construction probably means billionaires installing swimming pools and cinemas underneath their Kensington mansions. You may have seen the documentary, Millionaire Basement Wars:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05r86yg

So perhaps Elle's job is to sit around flicking through Vogue and Tatler while making sure the builders wipe their feet and no Mergim paints over the Picasso; snapping the odd photo on her iphone for progress reports. On Friday she writes cheques for the directors to sign, to pay for materials and subcontractors.
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Old 13-11-2015, 07:38
pete137
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I've met "suits" like her on construction sites before and her answer was hilarious as it was so true. She actually did'nt have a clue what her job was and I found that very true of the building industry.
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Old 13-11-2015, 07:41
Aslan52
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I've met "suits" like her on construction sites before and her answer was hilarious as it was so true. She actually did'nt have a clue what her job was and I found that very true of the building industry.
Same here and, as suggested above, the scope of her involvement in work is probably to flick through magazines like Tatler and Cheshire Life and pick out the stuff that she thinks her company's clients would like.
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Old 13-11-2015, 08:14
CaroUK
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She's a glorified admin assistant!

She delivers Instructions given to her by the foremen/ bosses etc to the workers on site.

Probably knows the square root of eff all about "construction"
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Old 13-11-2015, 09:08
Citizen Kane
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I have no evidence but Elle's job sounds like a family firm trying to find her a job. Third class degree at a mediocre uni with no employable skills nor much common sense.
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Old 13-11-2015, 10:28
Neio
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I have no evidence but Elle's job sounds like a family firm trying to find her a job. Third class degree at a mediocre uni with no employable skills nor much common sense.
That's what I thought too - having the position she supposedly has in the company seems unlikely at the age of 21, unless it's some kind of family business.
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Old 13-11-2015, 12:07
slouchingthatch
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That's what I thought too - having the position she supposedly has in the company seems unlikely at the age of 21, unless it's some kind of family business.
'Operations executive' is suitably vague but implies a fairly junior role - it's not a 'manager' or 'director' or 'owner', say.

With so many of the candidates, the job title they give themselves for the purposes of the show is often a huge distortion of the truth. I think one or two in the past have described themselves as being 'serial entrrepreneurs' which, if I'm being uncharitable (which I am) translates to me as 'set up many businesses, all of which failed'. Not that there's any shame in that - businesses fail all the time and many hugely successful business owners had initial failure - but it's very much a case of positive spin!
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Old 13-11-2015, 16:26
StratusSphere
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She was only 21? God I wouldnt've assumed that was her age.

To be honest I don't know why she'd inflate her job title at that age. Surely it would be an advantage to be able to fall back on "I'm only young, I'm only a ___ and I'm still learning lots in this process"? Still, she gave up very easy, I guess she recognised she was out of her depth.

I still think it was brave of her to speak firmly with Vana in that early task. Those girls were pretty intimidating.
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Old 13-11-2015, 17:40
lammtarra
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She was only 21? God I wouldnt've assumed that was her age.

To be honest I don't know why she'd inflate her job title at that age. Surely it would be an advantage to be able to fall back on "I'm only young, I'm only a ___ and I'm still learning lots in this process"? Still, she gave up very easy, I guess she recognised she was out of her depth.

I still think it was brave of her to speak firmly with Vana in that early task. Those girls were pretty intimidating.
Often it is employers who inflate job titles. It's cheaper than salary increases, and can impress customers or suppliers. I couldn't count the number of managers I deal with at work, for instance, but it is now more likely to mean someone who manages a service rather than being in charge of people or a department. Some universities have adopted the American model where every lecturer is a professor. As slouchingthatch says, executive is often a junior role, whereas it used to be something to aspire to.
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Old 18-11-2015, 02:01
hisdogspot
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Maybe her dad is a self employed builder and gave her a job doing a bit of paper-work in the porto-cabin.

It's the only explanation I can come up with for her claims to be 'hands-on' in the building trade
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