What it’s like to be on Apprentice and what house is like after boardroom rows

The Apprentice is back on our screens tonight, and we can't wait to see what the new intake of business brains come up with to impress Lord Alan Sugar.

The series will see 16 hopefuls go head to head to try and win a £250,000 investment by competing a number of testing challenges.

Now in its 15th year, hardcore Apprentice fans know the kind of fallouts, kitchen dramas and furious boardroom rows to expect – but what is it like to actually be a contestant on the show?

As with most TV programmes the reality is actually very different to the hour we spend watching every week, so we had a chat with last year's runner up Camilla Ainsworth.

The 24-year-old just missed out on Lord Sugar's investment, but she's done a great job of proving she didn't need his cash ever since and now runs her successful dairy-free nut milk drink company M+LKPLUS.

She told Mirror Online: "The show was absolutely amazing. I've always been a super fan, it's always been my favourite show.

"I went on it for my business, not for egotistical reasons. I knew I had a good product and it was my chance to showcase it.

"They warn you that it's going to be hard, but I don't think they prepare you for how difficult it is actually going to be."

The days are very, very long and the early morning phone calls are real

While we're only treated to an hour of The Apprentice fun each week, the actual filming obviously takes much, much longer.

Even though Camilla wouldn't say exactly how long the process took, they filmed one task after another rather than doing one a week.

She said: "People think it's very easy and you do one day a week, but that's really not the case.

"For the doughnuts task we started at 3am and we got home at 11pm.

"You're just filming all the way through and you just eat whenever you can."

She says the average day is from 5am until 9pm.

"A lot of people think you're forced to say things but the reality is you've done 18 hours of filming."

Lots of fans question whether the candidates actually get up when that phone call comes in, or if they have a pre-warning about when the day will start.

But according to Camilla that loud, annoying ringing really is how they get the information for the day.

"I could never hear the phone from my room, but I would hear everyone's footsteps and someone would shout '20 minutes'.

"You would just be like 'urgh'. I would always choose sleep over looking good.

"I thought if I can get five more minutes sleep than the others, it might help me.

"It did mean I always looked like I had been dragged through a hedge backwards though."

The application process is a "nightmare"

Camilla says that about 60,000 people applied for her year.

She didn't send her application off until the day before the deadline as she was so busy with work, admitting she didn't really have much hope.

But she was invited to the next stage of the long process, which she says was a "nightmare".

However she remained tight-lipped about what the application process involved. It's kept a closely guarded secret by the whole team, as nobody wants future applicants to have an unfair advantage.

She said:  "I remember when I went for my interview I was trying to research it but there is nothing out there."

She would say there are lots of different stages, and it's very, very tough.

"It was good practice for the actual tasks. It was very pressured and very competetive.

"Once you've done that you're aware of how high the caliber is. Even then some people stand out."

Karen and Claude are more hands on than you expect

Some fans believe that Lord Sugar's aides are just there to add a bit of extra drama to what's going on, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

Camilla said: "They are very hands on, which is good.

"They watch every move and know everything that is going on. They don't miss a trick.

"It adds another level of pressure because you really respect them."

The atmosphere in the house after boardroom rows wasn't as bad as you would think

The candidates all live together in a massive mansion in central London while filming the show.

While it sounds like a dream, viewers probably imagine that things can get pretty awkward when they all have to go home together after rowing over a task or shouting at each other in Lord Sugar's boardroom.

But according to Camilla that isn't the case.

"Being in that house is weird. It's very strange because at first you're all strangers and you're living with people you don't know.

"You don't have much space. Even though it's a big house you all get on top of each other.

"You have to learn to separate business and friendships. It was a learning curve for me.

"You don't take things personally. You're all fighting for £250,000, it's normal to want to throw someone under the bus to save yourself.

"It's just this unspoken thing, nobody holds grudges.

"I'm not a bitchy person at all but when you're in there, emotions are high, you're tired and you don't want to go home."

In fact, they're all great friends

Even though they are all completely different characters, Camilla says they all got on really well when they were off-camera.

She said: "If you make friends and you get on with people, that's your secret weapon.

She said: "We're all still friends now. I'm seeing Sian this week actually.

"I think our year was a lot closer than some of the other years."

They are completely cut off from the outside world

Hopefuls have to hand their phones in at the start of the process and don't get them back again until they are fired.

This means they are completely cut off from their family and friends for the whole process.

As well as missing their loved ones, Camilla really struggled with this aspect as it meant there was nobody to look after her business.

She said: "It was really hard not speaking to my family. They're your best drive and your motivation.

"You're thrown off balance a bit.

"My business was still at conception and it meant I couldn't run my business freely, so that was hard.

"You've always got the worry of not knowing if you're going come back to a business, a business that you're pitching to Lord Sugar, that has no interest.

"I found it very hard pitching a product I hadn't had any correspondence with."

Mobile phones – and Google – are completely banned

Ever wondered why it takes them so long to find that weird antique shop or how they manage to get lost tracking down that rare scarf?

That's because they can't do what we would all do and reach for our phone and let Google do the hard work.

They are completely reliant on the maps and directories we see them desperately flicking through in the back of the cabs.

They only phones they have are the team mobile phones, but they are only allowed to use them to call – and even that has to be on loudspeaker so viewers can hear what's going on.

Camilla: "Everyone assumes you get access to Google but you don't."

It's not always easy watch the show back on TV

Despite being a massive The Apprentice fan, Camilla admits she didn't enjoy watching the show at all last year.

She said: "It's going to be good to watch it and not be on it, and not have to be hiding behind a pillow the whole time.

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