Glenn Ward's engineering expertise was his eventual downfall on last night's Apprentice. Despite Jim Eastwood and Susan Ma appearing to be the biggest culprits in a hilarious magazine design challenge (Hip Replacement - seriously?), Ward was given the chop by Lord Sugar. Digital Spy caught up with him this week to find out whether he was shocked to leave, got his verdict on Jedi Jim and probed him on those Zoe showmance rumours.

I was shocked that you went this week. Did it take you by surprise?
"I was shocked. I didn't want to leave and I thought I contributed to the task well enough. It was just my boardroom effort that let me down. I didn't push hard enough. The other guys strongly defended their positions, but I just felt uncomfortable doing that and I was too humble. I wasn't able to tell everyone how great I was and that's the nature of the process. In the boardroom you have to convince Lord Sugar you're great."

You didn't appear to brag much about your previous success on the show such as the pet food task. Did you sell yourself in bits we didn't see in the final edit?
"I don't think I did. It's not in my nature. That's why I went. I didn't push myself to Lord Sugar and he didn't believe in my abilities."

Do you think it's fair that Lord Sugar's final decision appeared to come down to the fact that you're an engineer?
"Lord Sugar has his opinions and if that's what he thinks, that's what he thinks. I can only go out there now and prove him wrong. I think there are engineers out there who have done well in business. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, James Dyson... they all did pretty well as far as I can tell. I wouldn't compare myself directly to them, but I can only aspire. I look forward to the day I shake Lord Sugar's hand and I say, 'I told you I could do it'."

There's a growing consensus that Jim's a bulls**tter. Do you agree?
"I am friends with Jim. I don't think he's a bulls**tter. I think he's got a very powerful weapon in his arsenal and that's the ability to negotiate. He was fighting for his life in that boardroom and he talked himself out of the boardroom. That's what I should have done and I can't complain. You have to applaud him for it really."

People on Twitter are calling him Jedi Jim. Were the other candidates aware of his persuasion powers at this stage in the contest?
"Well, I called it in the boardroom. I said Jim can be controlling and that he would never wholly take responsibility for something, he would always deflect it and share it on the group. But he was a good guy. He made the max of what he's got, so good luck to him."

Hip Replacement was a dreadful idea. Do you agree with hindsight?
"It was a little bit risqué and it was definitely a risk. We knew it would be a danger. We wanted to shake up the market and we certainly got noticed. We said that we wanted it to be a magazine that you'd see in a dentist's surgery and it would capture the attention of people, and I think we did that. In hindsight, it was dangerous and we were exposed. But when we spoke to the marketing people, they seemed to think if we kept the irony on the cover it would have been okay. I don't know if it was a good idea overall, but we knew it would be dangerous."

Where is your career heading now?
"I am still doing the same job I was doing before, but I've also launched my own mobile phone app. I've coded it and I'll be doing the whole thing from graphics to marketing and putting it out there. It's called Shake Awake Alarm and it's built by Newland Logic - the name may have been inspired by The Apprentice. It takes elements I learned on the app task on the show and also from this final week with the ad sales element, because that opened my eyes to a whole new potential stream of income."

Who would you hire if you were Lord Sugar?
"All the guys have got their own skills and talents, but for me Helen's got her great record of not losing a task for a reason and she'd be the one for me. She's very personable, very intelligent and she's never lost a task."

Was there any truth to the "madly in love" reports about you and Zoe Beresford?
"I'm friends with all the guys and I'm still talking lots to all of them. There's lots of talk out there and I'm not going to comment on that. Obviously there is talk of me being with Zoe. We get on really well and are good friends. I'm still friends with all the guys on the show. We got on really well."

The Apprentice continues next Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.