1) Remember to take your hairbrush out of your hair before you attend your meeting.

2) Feeling thirsty? Be careful when picking up a jug of water to pour yourself a glass of water. The bottom has been known to fall out of said jug in the past.

3) Do not ask what the square footage of their offices is (unless you are an architect).

4) When trying to find a client’s offices, do not stand on the street corner by a puddle. Particularly avoid when you hear a car approaching.

5) Moderate your alcohol intake. Do not molest your client.

6) Do not mention your bitterness at your spouse’s affair with his/her secretary.

7) Do not lock yourself in the lavatory at evening client events. Offices tend to be locked up beyond a certain time in the evening, and there will be no hope of escape until the morning.

8) Remember to tell your loved ones where you are at all times. It can be embarrassing having your husband/wife/partner phoned up in the middle of night by someone asking for instructions on how to wake you up and how to get you home.

9) Be yourself. Do not invent a whole imaginary new persona in order to sell yourself/your product to your client. Someone may find out after all.

10) Try not to cry.

We’ve just been sharing a few memories of candidate interview experiences – and yes these have all happened!

1) Do not pick up a toffee in reception just before you go into an interview so that your jaws are so clamped together you cannot speak.

2) Do not wear a tie with Mickey Mouse (or even worse Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) festooned all over.

3) Do not bring your My Little Pony lunchbox to your interview.

4) Do not crack your knuckles or clear your nasal passages throughout your interview.

5) For men; cut off your ponytail. Remove your ear-ring.

6) For women; remove your ankle bracelet. Do not overdose on the perfume.

7) Do not fall asleep in your interview

8) Do not ask midway through your interview if they mind if you eat your sandwiches.

9) Do not call your interviewer ‘babe’ or ‘darling’ or other affectionate terms of endearment, even if you think you’re a shoe-in for the job.

10) Adjust your seating position throughout your interview. Do not sit so still that your leg goes numb, and therefore you fall over when you try to stand up to shake hands.

Over 650 of the UK’s leading tax professionals packed the Hilton ballroom on Thursday evening to celebrate a successful year for the tax profession. Josh Bottomley, the Managing Director of organisers Lexis Nexis, began the Taxation Awards 2010 evening by delivering a positive key-note opening speech.

BLT hosted a great table, with guests from the Big 4 accountancy firms and leading commercial businesses.

As in previous years, we were proud to sponsor 2 of the awards and we offered our heartiest congratulations to all of the winners.

The award for the Best VAT team went to Ernst & Young’s health indirect tax team. The award was collected by E&Y partner and team leader Audrey Fearing. Winner in the best tax team in a large firm category went to the Mazars employment tax services team. Both of these winners are long standing clients of BLT and we are delighted to celebrate their success.

Law firm McGrigors were on the shortlist for the best VAT team award and although they were sorry not to win, the team was delighted to have been shortlisted for such a prestigious award. It was also great to see the public sector once again on the shortlist in the form of the Lancashire County Council VAT team.

For the first time this year there was an award for Taxation’s rising star. This was won by Caroline Villar from Legal and General and we congratulate her on her achievements so far and look forward to seeing more of her in the future.

The tax personality of the decade award went to Alison Lovejoy, the retiring editor of Tax Journal magazine. Alison is much loved by the tax fraternity and won a standing ovation from her peers.

Comedian Hugh Dennis was an excellent presenter and delivered a hilarious set that was clearly enjoyed by all. After the awards and the cabaret, the guests enjoyed celebrating in the casino and on the dance floor.

Many congratulations to all the winners and those shortlisted and we look forward to celebrating another year of tax success in 2011.

Liz Watt, Guy Barrand, Emma Wade and Sheila Mandal will be hosting a table of key clients at the Taxation Awards 2010 tonight.

The Tax awards, which take place at London’s Park Lane Hilton, are the ‘Oscars’ of the tax world and around 500 of the great and the good in the tax world will be there to celebrate the previous year’s achievements.

Some of the most respected figures in the tax industry sat on the judging panel and they had the unenviable task of trying to pick the best from a very high-quality field.

For the 10th successive year, BLT is proud to sponsor 2 of the awards at the prestigious glitzy black tie gala event. This year we are again sponsoring the Best VAT team and Best Tax team in a large firm.

Liz and Sheila will be presenting the awards, whilst Guy and Emma will be entertaining the clients at our table.

Apart from finding out the winners of the awards, one of the most hotly sought after pieces of information is which comedian will be doing the cabaret! LexisNexis have set a high standard in this regard – last year it was Michael McIntyre and in previous years they have had Rory Bremner, Jasper Carrot, Marcus Brigstocke and Bob Monkhouse.

We congratulate all those who made it through to the final shortlist in what was a truly challenging year for everybody and we are looking forward to seeing all the finalists and chatting to our clients this evening!

We invited some of our BLT juniors (and dog) into the office on Christmas Eve to demonstrate their potential for recruitment.