It is easy to mock reality TV shows such as the X-Factor and The Apprentice, or even to despair that they signal the downfall of Western civilization. But, there are lessons we can all take from such shows to help our careers, claims Scott Simons, a director at recruitment firm Networkers International.

I’ll admit it. I was glued to this year’s Apprentice final and, joined by around six million others; I was clearly in good company. If you haven’t watched the Apprentice or other tv-shows yet, then you are missing out on some great TV. You can check out websites like Likewise to see what is new on television and get your fix and inspiration!

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A part-time job in a supermarket led Andy Clarke to become the CEO of a major British company, he tells Marcus Leroux

He runs a business that serves 19 million customers a week and has annual sales of more than £22 billion.

As a teenager, however, Andy Clarke was more interested in breaching the opposition try line than the upper echelons of management. And the Asda chief executive’s formative years were not spent at Oxford, Cambridge or a prestigious business school.

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Too many young businesswomen are ill-prepared to succeed, an equality pioneer tells Andrew Clark

It is a bleak image of budding female graduates embarking upon business careers. Too many are wet behind the ears, unprepared and doomed, according to a pioneer in workplace equality.

“They’re coming out with Louboutins and a bikini and saying they’re going to climb Kilimanjaro,” Heather Jackson, founder of the Women’s Business Forum, says of ambitious women in their early twenties. “We, as women, are not saying to them: have you got your survival pack? Are you prepared for altitude sickness?”

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