KRT CampusBusiness-savvy students at Washington University may have the chance to be Donald Trump’s next “Apprentice”-interviews for the show’s fourth season will be held at the Knight Center early next month.
In an e-mail sent to students at the Olin School of Business on Friday, Associate Dean Deborah Booker noted that the “Apprentice” Casting Team is specifically looking to interview “BSBAs who are over 21 and any MBAs who may be interested” when they visit campus Feb. 10. However, Booker speculates that other faculty and students at the University will be welcome to interview as well.
“I’ve seen people other than MBA students on the program,” she said. “I think they target the MBA population because it’s a logical choice, given the content of the show.”
Senior Neel Thakker said he thinks the show is a wonderful concept since all candidates get the chance to prove themselves over a longer time-period instead of just surviving a single interview.
“I would definitely consider applying,” Thakker said. “Some of my friends told me I’d be perfect for the show.”
Other students are not as willing to throw their hat into the ring, but they would be excited to see a peer make it on “The Apprentice.”
“Personally I wouldn’t do it, but it would be great to see another Wash U student on there,” said senior Jim Mourey. “It’s a good show to watch but it’s a game, not reality. What really gets candidates to the top is their game-playing ability.”
The open casting call at the University’s Weston Career Resource Center (WCRC) will be held during the team’s visit in St. Louis, one of 29 cities from San Diego to New York being scanned for future Trump associates.
“They look at a city and they target the best business school in the city to do some one-on-one interviewing,” Booker said.
She learned of the casting team’s plans to visit campus when she was contacted last week by Martin Booker (no relation), a member of the casting team who will be conducting the interviews. The open casting calls held in each city, however, will be different than those held on college campuses.
“They’re actually going to be doing another day of ‘open-call’ interviewing [in St. Louis], but this is special for the Wash U community. The next casting call they do on the riverboat will apparently be ‘stand-in-line-and-take-your-chances,'” Deborah Booker said of the more intimate environment the campus interviews will provide.
Students interested in interviewing need only fill out the one-page application form on the NBC website (nbc.com) and bring it to the WCRC between 1 and 5 p.m. on the audition day.
Booker also noted that the casting team member Martin Booker said they haven’t cast any younger members in the past-they’ve been mostly graduate students. This is a possible deterrent to applying for some BSBAs, but most feel that less work experience does not make for a less capable candidate.
“We might have a slightly lower chance of getting selected since we’re younger than most candidates, but just because we have less experience doesn’t mean we won’t do well on the show,” Thakker said.
Booker said the University is not going to provide the casting team with any specific names.
“We’re not promoting this in any way other than just making [students] aware of the opportunity,” she said.
Though Booker reports that the casting team visited the University years ago, before the show’s premiere, to her knowledge no interviews for other TV programs have ever been conducted at the University-and no University students have ever appeared on “The Apprentice.”