The Apprentice is back on our television screens – and one of the contestants vying for life-changing investment and mentorship is Melica Moshiri, from Sussex.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00The Apprentice is back for Series 19, fronted by business tycoon Lord Alan Sugar, alongside his trusted advisors, Baroness Karen Brady and Tim Campbell MBE.
00:13With £250,000 investment and mentorship up for grabs, 18 brand new candidates are battling it out for the opportunity of a lifetime.
00:22Among them is Malika Mashiri from Worthing, who spoke to Sussex World ahead of the series launch.
00:28Thank you so much for joining us. And first of all, could you just tell me how did it all come about?
00:32How did the application process go? And obviously, congratulations on being part of the new series.
00:36Thank you. How did it go? So, my cousin recommended I apply for The Apprentice.
00:44So I was watching EastEnders at their house. I'm a big fan of EastEnders, by the way. Love it.
00:51And the advert for The Apprentice came up and my cousin was like, you should apply for it.
00:55I think you'd be really good at this. And I was like, all right, I'll just pop my application in.
01:00So and at this point, I think, I mean, I've been back from the US for over two years now.
01:06So I used to live in L.A. in Orange County. I lived there for four and a half years.
01:10And then I returned just after Covid. Anyway, so I applied. I already had my recruitment business.
01:17And then, yeah, I got invited to the assessment day and passed the first stage.
01:24And then the second stage, when I got the invite for that, I was a bit worried about that because I was training for the Brighton Half Marathon at the time.
01:31And I was on the other side with that second stage interview. Luckily, I got the second stage interview two days before, one day before the half marathon.
01:41So I was able to run half marathon the next day. And then, yeah, basically like on the first day of spring, that's when I got the news and had a month to write up my business plan,
01:52buy all my clothes, return things, take things back and choose my outfits.
01:58And then off I went, packed my bags, got on the train, went to London. Amazing. That must have been really surreal.
02:04Honestly, it was weird, but surreal. Definitely. I mean, I didn't expect it.
02:08I mean, there's a lot of people that apply to go on it. And you probably know, I think in Worthing, stuff like this is such a big deal because everyone sort of knows each other here.
02:18So, like, I'm just so proud to just be representing Worthing and being like the Worthing candidate on The Apprentice.
02:26Yeah, amazing. So what are your kind of hopes for the series? What do you kind of hope that you will kind of get from it and learn from that kind of thing?
02:33Yeah, I think obviously I'm hoping to win. I think that's a big thing. Get the investment, get mentorship from Lord Sugar.
02:42I think no matter where you are in your career, I think everyone can do with some mentorship.
02:48And I think just learning from somebody like Lord Sugar, who's been very successful, who's come from nothing and like an absolute business tycoon, like he's so inspirational.
02:58Same with Baroness Brady and Tim. But that also just like getting exposure to my business, putting Worthing on the map.
03:09And yeah, I suppose those are the things that I want to really get out of it for sure.
03:13Amazing. And what can you tell us about kind of your business and work life in Worthing and Sussex in general kind of?
03:19And how does that feed into what we might learn about you in the show?
03:22Yeah, so I would consider myself a little bit of a digital nomad. So I love traveling. People call me like the Marco Polo.
03:31Literally every month I'm booking a ticket and I'm flying away. But even though I'm flying away, I'm not doing soddle.
03:37I am working and taking my work because I have a lot of clients in the US. So I do work evening sometimes.
03:45But I have an AI tech recruitment company. I mean, I've been in recruitment and sales for the last 10 years.
03:50I lived in the US. I helped open up a US office for another UK based recruitment company.
03:56So I've had that exposure. So I decided when I returned back to the UK, I didn't really want to work for an employer.
04:04It just made sense to me to really bring on that experience and start my own recruitment company.
04:08So I literally started it from my room at home and yeah, just sort of like expanded and grown from there.
04:16So I've been doing it for over two and a half years. So I partner with early stage funded companies within the tech industry,
04:22whether it's the UK, whether it's Europe and the US, to help them scale their teams around commercial and technical talents and executive search.
04:32And then, like I said, I think the thing you'll probably come across is that I do love traveling.
04:38All the publications out there say I'm a globetrotter. That is very true. I've been to 36 countries.
04:44I mean, I guess you've probably had to keep a lot secret from friends and family, that kind of thing. How hard has that been to do?
04:50I would say in this process, that's been the hardest thing. The hardest thing wasn't being in the process. It was being outside.
04:56Yeah, I can imagine.
04:58I had to lie to everybody. The rumour was that everyone thought I was on jury service and they also thought I went to Iran.
05:05So I mentioned Iran because my parents are Iranian.
05:09So they all thought I was on jury service and I went to Iran.
05:13The hardest thing. And honestly, I'm a terrible liar and I kept this good.
05:19I really kept this a big secret, but it was so hard because I was just in limbo throughout that whole time.
05:24You mentioned obviously about putting a wording on the map.
05:27So, yeah, how special was that for you to do that and to represent your hometown and everything like that?
05:33I was born and raised in Southlands Hospital, which is in Shoreham.
05:36But I was born and raised in Worthing. I've been to the local schools here.
05:41So I've been to the Laurels First School. I've been to the Orchards Middle School, Davison's as well.
05:47I've been to Worthing College and then I went to University of Brighton.
05:50So I'm a very local girl. I've lived in London, you know, two and a half years before.
05:54But also quite a lot of people in Worthing do know us anyway.
05:59So a lot of people know my dad, for example, just such a long time.
06:03My parents came over to the my dad came over to the UK from Iran 45 years ago.
06:08So he's been here ages. But it's nice because I feel like Worthing is such a proud place.
06:15Like I was in on the apprentice Love Island, like everyone was screaming about her.
06:21Now it's obviously my turn now. So, yeah, I'm really pleased.
06:25And I think it's good press. It's good coverage for Worthing.
06:27Because a lot of people don't know where Worthing is. I always have to say, oh, Worthing's near Brighton.
06:32Yes. Yeah.