Before you go on your next interview, make Bret Michaels your mentor.

I hate to admit, but I watched the entire season of Celebrity Apprentice. So I figured I could turn the hours spent in front of the flat screen that I will never get back into something useful. Plus, since I had not watched more than 7 minutes of “Lost”, I felt the need to be topical.

First, I acknowledge that a hundred thousand bloggers are abuzz about this show, maybe a few dozen are non-TV show geeks, and a few recruiters are like me and using the obvious “interview” and “hired” references. (Even NBC has a blog about this topic.) It truly wasn’t until this morning that it hit me that one thing that kept me tuned in was the cast’s behavior. I realized that I could pull out qualities that made Bret a good potential employee.

If you didn’t watch the show, or can’t stand Bret or Trump or anything labelled Celebrity, please hang in with me.

At the start of the show, my expectations for Bret were low.

Even Don Jr. said it: “this will be quick”. He came from behind, he was not expected to go the distance. In the end, he was up against who was arguably the best player this year. And he _got hired_.

Some might argue that he played the sympathy card. In a year when there were no true villans on The Apprentice, Bret became the one most found themselves pulling for, the one most wanted to win in the end. He was unwittingly thrust onto this pedastal by his medical issues outside of the show. While Holly earned respect by being a Mom fighting for her child, the “bear and her cub” metaphor, Bret was written off as artisic but high maintenance, a loose cannon, by the guys on his team (Interesting that the two men who made it the farthest each had their own way of connecting with females).

Holly earned record-setting money for her charity (the true job, if you ask me), and she obviously won the final task, but Bret ultimately got hired. So how did he get the job?

He was tenacious. His team may have been names “Rock Solid”, but the opposing team’s moniker was appropriate to define Bret. While his cast mates seemed to give in to one issue or another to quit or get fired, he stuck it out. I thought when he found out his daughter was diagnosed with “borderline” diabetes, that was it for him. He stayed in it. He was brought into the boardroom and risked firing three times, yet he survived and never lost focus. Finally, right before the finale, his serious (life threatening) health issues could have kept him at the very least home, at the most caused him to resign. What a ratings grabber that he came for the final show, albeit not at 100%.

He was (quietly) assertive. Even on the tasks where he was not project manager, he was threw himself into the ring, and as a result was given individual duties that offered him opportunity to showcase his talents. And he was remembered for it, down to the final minute.

He demonstrated integrity. Some players faded into the background (I missed one week and had to review the cast list before I realized the Olympic swimmer has been voted off), some fly under the radar (I was shocked that Maria made it as far as she did), some had lack of skills that grated everyone (Blago’s lack of basic tech skills and Cyndi’s lack of any sense of the real world). Bret summed it up to Mr. Trump: he jumped in to work, did what he was asked, and worked hard.

He was well liked. Especially by the ladies. Last night during the final interview question, “Why should I hire you?”, even I found myself with a newfound respect for the guy. While I still can’t embrace his choice of headwear, I actually have to admit that I found him charming, I grew to _like_ the guy. And who do we want to work with?

He branded himself. His stamp was on his team name, “Rock Solid”; you knew what the implied meaning was. His choice of headwear, both somewhat dated and unflattering on anyone else who tried it, was memorable. His previous reality show “Rock of Love” was mentioned so many times I would bet that he earned residuals forself promotion. The name of the final product he created? “Tropa-Rocka”. Every day you saw him, he was a Rocker, from his ubiquitous eyeliner to his elbow-long bleached locks to the skinny jeans. You knew what you were getting. He was just a hair short of a joke, but one that was not lost on himself, and one he pulled out frequently to his advantage. Not only is he a brand, he knows how to work it.

For all of the things Bret did right, he also made mistakes:
- During Week 1, he would whine about how little sleep he got (annoying) and almost fainted from low blood sugar (irresponsible).
- Blago only had to play the game, and he would have been gone (lucky). I imagine that Rod chose to fall on the sword rather than deal with another task that required using email.
- How many of you caught what I did? His 30 second spot in the final task contained an error; he recorded describing the tea flavor that did _not_ get produced – peaches and plums with a hint of cinnamon (sloppy)?

But he was hired by one of the most saavy businessman in the world.

How about a final thought: Mr. Trump is nothing if not a shrewd marketer, and of the last few players, hiring which one could get him more press? (does the Miss USA photo shoot contreversy ring a bell?) Advice from that: know what value you bring to the table and remind the hiring manager.

Well played, Bret. Rock on.