So, is The Apprentice what recruitment is really like?

In a new series of articles, we'll be exploring perceptions of jobs and recruitment as portrayed on television, in films or in pieces in the media, in a series we're calling "Is it really like this?" We're starting off by looking at The Apprentice and all the things it doesn't quite get right.

The Apprentice - a staple of British reality television, focussing on 12 individuals as they fight for an investment and the chance to work with Lord Alan Sugar.?

If you watch it, you would be forgiven for thinking it's a realistic portrayal of recruitment processes in the UK. We're here to bust some myths on how recruitment and work-life is portrayed on The Apprentice and reassure you it's really not like this!

You'll know who you're up against...

It's very rare that you'll actually know everyone who is going for a position - unless you're at?an assessment centre. Normally you might work with them in a group and this is to see both how you cope with the task and how you interact with other people. Whereas "the candidates" are happy to argue with each other, we really recommend you don't do that!

You'll be working across lots of different roles and disciplines...

Apprentice candidates work across so many roles -?project manager, sales and pitching, design - you name it, they do it. Graduate schemes could be one of the few jobs where you might end up doing lots of different positions, but this would be as part of a rotation and in the end, you will likely end up in one position. If you work for yourself, you will be more likely to need the range of skills to cover lots of positions (until you can afford to bring in people to help!)

When you manage a team, you just tell people to do as you say...

Project management on this series has very much felt like the project manager is the only person allowed to have an idea and everyone else's opinion is wrong or inconvenient. It's very much a case of telling people what to do. This is a really bad example of leadership. Good leaders will seek the opinion of others in their team and while sharing work with others, they will support them through the work. When mistakes are made, rather than shouting, a good manager will talk through what went wrong and not point blame. A mistake is something to be learned from, not used as evidence against a person.

This weeks article was written by Jacqualine Cooksey, Employability Engagement Manager at NTU and avid Apprentice watcher.