I think she used them on Trump’s COO. “You know I don’t like Jenn…These aren’t the droids we’re looking for!”
I think I figured out why Jen just bugged the hell out of me so much. In my legal career, I’ve seen a lot of resumes from people who went to a lot of good schools. A lot of them are Jen. Empty suits with resumes. How many times did she fall back on “I went to Princeton, I went to Harvard Law.” ? Yeah, we KNOW that. What else do you have? The answer in Jen’s case was - not much. Unfortunately, there are a lot of very good firms that will hire someone like Jen. The reason is, she is smart and probably quite a capable lawyer. And all these firms really care about, particularly for a young associate, is whether they can bill enough hours and do the work competently enough to avoid malpractice.
Jen’s falling back on her education grated on me because I hear it from a lot of candidates, because that’s all they know about themselves. I get the resume before the candidate walks in the door. I’ve read it. I know where they went to school. And I don’t really care. If you’re talking to me, you have made it through whatever filter the firm has imposed to weed out the B- students from Podunk State Law School. So telling me where you went to school and how you excelled there doesn’t help me decide that I’m going to hire you. It probably does just the opposite.
Hey, thanks! The bad part is that this episode had so many cringe-worthy moments that I’m afraid just a straight-faced reporting of what happened qualifies as “snarkiness.”
Y’know, I first got into the Apprentice late last season, because someone over at TWoP (Miss Alli herself, I believe) made a comparison between The Amazing Race, which I love, and The Apprentice. In both shows, contestants rise and fall on their own merits. Race poorly, you’re Philiminated. Lead poorly, you’re fired. And even though I only caught the last few episodes, I was charmed by Troy and Kwame’s friendship (even when they went up against each other in the Boardroom!) and Nick and Amy’s friendship, and the respect Bill and Kwame showed each other before embarking on the last task.
This season, though… it seemed like the winning strategy through most of the season was not to step up and lead, but to do as little as possible, find someone to blame for any loss, put together a coalition and hammer the scapegoat in the Boardroom.
So we have essentially harmless StacieJ and take-charge Pam going out early, while blame-shifters extraordinaire Maria and Ivana go far. Sure, neither of those two made it to the final four, and you could probably argue that Kelly and Jenn were destined to come out on top no matter what, but the blame-shifting strategy changes the relationship among players, pitting them against each other the entire time.
And that Survivor-type attitude turns me off, because in this season we don’t wind up with final candidates that like and respect each other. We wind up with final candidates that can’t stand each other. No Troy and Kwame. And that, to me, makes for less compelling television.
Next season? I dunno if I’ll watch. Particularly since the “twist” is to include a whole team of candidates that have no college degree. A factor which, I should point out, brought down both Sandy this season and Troy last season, because Trump specifically likes people with an education. Huh, I wonder which contestants have the better chance to actually be picked by Trump?
zut, you might like The Biggest Loser. Even in the “boardrooms” the friendships far outweigh any negativity. I don’t know how it will be next year.
I was pretty disappointed in the Apprentice this year, but hopefully they’ll get a better batch of people. I’m willing to give at least the first few episodes a shot.
It’s like a snapshot of my life! 
It has been mentioned here, but not enough, so I’m devoting my entire post to it:
What was up with Trump’s CFO and his total brain fart in front of hundreds of audience members and millions of viewers? I was appalled. If he were my CFO, I’d fire him for that ridiculous performance. Trump would be better served replacing him with Jen. At least she can talk.
Did he not know that he was going to be asked what he thought about the two candidates? Why did he not like Jen? Was he getting ready to say, “Because she’s just a dumb broad yuk-yuk” and only at the last possible second did his mental filter inform him that: a) Jen is sitting right there, b) you are surrounded by hundreds of people, many of which are ‘broads’, and c) that is not a particularly good reason for not liking someone. And why did he like Kelly? We’ll never know, because this shining example of corporate success couldn’t string two words together when asked a simple question.
To quote the CFO: “Wow”. :eek:
“I’m not doing too good, am I?” You could say that, mister inarticulate. Omarosa did better than you…OMAROSA! Props to Regis for not bailing him out of his self-imposed spectacle.
And to just sit down at the end? How addled must his mind have been to just completely give up trying to express any thought whatsoever. We witnessed what can only be described as a mental meltdown. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had to change his underwear before the inevitable after-party. And I can’t imagine how well THAT party went for him, with people coming up to him all night and asking such questions as, “So, why don’t you like Jen?” and, “What was THAT about?”. This is of course assuming he showed up and wasn’t still sitting in his seat after production shut down when the night crew were tearing down the set and cleaning up, still trying to overcome his colossal televised failure. Heck, he might STILL be there.
At any rate, it was the highlight of the night for me. I may not remember the winner of this show next year, but I’ll always remember that debacle.
I think it was the COO, not the CFO. And while it was embarassing, I wouldn’t rate it as a terminable offense. As COO of a real estate developer’s empire, his job is probably more strong-arming contractors, vendors, etc. to get everything to run smoothly than schmoozing with investors.
Freezing under pressure would be grounds for a trip to the woodshed for a CFO, deals with shareholders, investors, etc., and therefore has to be comfortable with public speaking.
Hear! Hear! (This was the most correct and succinct description of the Jennwitch that I’ve seen on this board.)
All good points, jeevmon. I was just indulging in little schadenfreude.
Carry on. 
I wouldn’t want to work with Kelly either and I definitely wouldn’t want to work for him.
I guess it’s subjective but I just found Kelly to be so smug that it was more off-putting than Jenn’s bitchiness. I did feel like Jenn would get things done that needed to be done. I bet she’s a good lawyer.
I thought that is was interesting that George the lawyer was the only one who stuck up for her. A good lawyer (other than a litigator) is generally concerned with making sure that things go smoothly, while remaining in the client’s shadow. This may have doomed her in an environment where showing off was so important.
I really wish one of the former contestants (Troy, for instance) had had the balls to stand up and say, “I still think you should fire them both and hire me.” That’s what I would have said when Regis approached me.
I was wondering if The Donald regretter getting rid of Pamela so early.
zut, excellent work, my friend. Thanks for picking up the slack in my absence. I truly appreciate it. I also truly appreciate all of the other people hopelessly devoted to dissecting a TV show. Maybe I’m turning all maudlin in fatherhood, but I get a lot of joy out of doing this each week.
Coming up next? A full season recap thread where I dismantle every little nuance, mistake, misstep, and the few good things from this season.
And then? Back into the flow with the Raj Ratings for season 3. The name may stay the same, but I have a plan for new categories.
Of course, I don’t think that’s exactly fair. She’s quite young, remember. She’d have to be at least 24 when she got out of law school, then she got a job and worked for that firm until the game started. How much time did she have to lead a company? Kelly had quite a few years on her in which to get experience, not to mention how many companies he started up and then left.
What Jenn had that made her more than just an “empty suit” was her polished, articulate self-presentation. Time and time again she was the most poised, effective public speaker on her team, and while she may not have been the team leader, her performance won the day for her team. Not all lawyers have that ability; some of them never get up from behind a desk to talk to anyone. She most certainly has a great deal of charisma and an ability to think and talk fast on her feet. That, I have found, can get you very far in life.
So why the “unfortunately”? Doesn’t being smart and capable count for anything? I feel you’ve contradicted yourself-- if she’s an empty suit with nothing but some pieces of paper with Ivy League universities’ names on them, then it seems that you hold smarts and capability as counting for naught. I think you’re wrong about that. Jenn will be very successful, and rightly so.
Why is everyone so quick to forget that it was only Jenn, of all the women, who stuck up for Stacie J when she was lynched by her team? That she alone refused to participate in all the back-stabbing, trash-talking, whispering bullshit that took place in the suite? Everyone else indulged in it but her; even when Andy came to her about Ivana, she just listened and said little. To me, that is business-like, professional behavior, something Kelly just did not exhibit. In fact, he behaved like a 7th grade girl. I’d hate to work for him, with him, or anywhere near him. Bleah.
Still, she could have pointed to concrete accomplishments instead of repeatedly touting her degrees and school experience. This is fairly basic info that all job-seekers should know.
Not at all. It doesn’t mean that jeevmon considers these Ivy League credentials to be worthless. It does mean, however, that it’s not enough to fall back on these credentials repeatedly. If someone has five years of post-university experience, then that person should be able to describe concrete situations in which he or she made unique contributions.
Admittedly, Jenn did say that she rose high within her law firm (or words to that effect), but that’s not the same thing.
It seems that the entirety of her experience was in that one law firm. As a junior member of a firm, she probably had little corporate leadership experience. That’s the cold, hard fact. The only leadership she could point to was her academic honors and her sorority presidency. Without making things up, she had to stick to those experiences.
Well, you misread what I wrote. jeevmon said that Jenn was an empty suit with nothing but degrees to offer, and then went on to say that she was smart and capable. My response was, are smart and capable chopped liver? The Ivy League degrees alone aren’t going to cut it, but smart, competent, poised, and articulate should qualify Jenn as more than just an empty suit with nothing to offer. Thus, my feeling that jeevmon’s comments were off-base.
I don’t think anyone who watched the show can honestly say that Jenn was an empty suit with nothing to offer. She had a lot of ideas, communicated them effectively, and never lost her cool until the end. Let’s not try to dismiss her as an empty suit. That’s just not accurate.
I’m still trying to figure out what the fuck she meant by that. She’s nowhere near old enough to be up for partner at a firm like Clifford Chance, and before that magic day associates are all, well, associates. There might be some variance in bonus compensation among associates based on hours billed each year (and on how much the partner like you), but there isn’t much in the way of titular promotions. First year associates become second year associates, then become third year associates and so on and so forth, with annual bumps in compensation.
Maybe the partners informally had her tagged as a rising star, but I’m really not sure how she could say in any objective way that she had risen high in her firm.
(And even that doesn’t necessarily mean shit; I was told I was one of the top lawyers in my starting class at the firm I worked for in NYC, and still found myself laid off a little over a year later when work in the industry my section principally represented dried up. Young lawyers at big firms are fungible billing units.)
I agree, Dewey. I also thought that was an odd thing to say.
And I strongly disagree with RubyStreak’s contention that her limited work experience must have forced her to fall back on academic credentials. She’s been in the workplace for five years now, for pity’s sake! There are plenty of ways to be a leader without being in a managerial position. Sometimes, you have to create leadership opportunities for yourself (as both Amy and Carolyn demonstrated in their own books).
And even if leadership opportunities were absolutely absent, she could have emphasized other contributions. She could have talked about occasions in which she defused a fiery work situation, for example. (Admittedly, she had a penchant for pissing her teammates off, and at least three of Trump’s viceroys thought she was either abrasive or unlikeable. Perhaps defusing volatile situations just wasn’t her strength.)
The business angle was the obvious question that few addressed head-on, until the end. Jen is razor sharp, has a stellar education, is articulate, attractive, good bod, and works for a world-class law firm.
Problem is, her business experience is razor thin. There’s no doubt that Kelly, owing to his age, has far more life and business experience to draw upon, but Trump would be a damn fool to discount that experience and consider them equals. When push comes to shove, Jen is a top-drawer, kick-ass lawyer–but also just that: a lawyer. She’s no businesswoman and has never run a business. Articulate and aggressive? She gets my vote. But zero track record on the business front–and that’s a major liability when you’re hiring someone to lead a big, complex organization, rather than groom dogs, run a restaurant for a day, or do a 48 house remodel.
Another reason Jen turned off viewers is that she represents that sorority president archetype, if you will–the type who looks right through you and you and you and you. Combine her “better than thou” attitude with, objectively, a great deal to back up that attitude (see above), and you’re going to generate enough Schadenfreude to light Manhattan for centuries.
I’m not sure the West Point angle would have been so relevant pre-9/11, but that training, combined with military/Ranger experience, focuses on leadership, communication, teamwork, risk taking, strategy, and much much more. Combine a law degree and MBA, and you’ve got a hell of a candidate. Add lots of business experience and you’re almost bullet proof.
Another observation: I’ve rubbed shoulders with CEOs, CFOs, presidents and more, and very few could be called charismatic or claim to have sizzling personalities. Kelly reminds me of them. Jen reminds me of an entrepreneur–or a high-powered lawyer. She’s got what it takes to succeed in most any endeavor.
Don’t worry about Jen. She’s probably set for life: book, lectures, business offers. Don’t be surprised to see a hair commercial, etc. No one lost in the finals.