Gregorio Ricci – Spotlight Award
Gregorio will graduate in 2026 with an MA (Hons) Economics and Management. He completed the Award in 2025.
What made you want to complete the Award?
In my experience applying for jobs, I receive most rejections during the early stages of the application (CV, Cover Letter, Hirevue). Companies do not have the time to provide personalised feedback at these early stages, complicating personal improvement. I decided to take part in the Spotlight Award because it seemed like a great opportunity to receive actionable feedback at every stage of an application process, which I could then use to strengthen my real applications.
How did you find the application process for the Award and what did you learn from it?
I found the whole experience to be very formative, well-constructed and similar to a true application process. I received detailed feedback at every stage as well as a score from 1-100, giving me a sense of what I had to do to improve, and how far I was from where I need to be to succeed in a real application. It was particularly helpful to receive feedback on my cover letter and Hirevue (on-demand video interview), pointing to concrete areas of improvement I otherwise would not have been able to identify myself.
Tell us how you found the employer led assessment centre
The assessment centre in particular was very well run: the way it was designed and the scope of the activities was similar to assessment centres I have had to do for employers in the past, and the opportunity to be interviewed by two employees from a reputable organisation such as Accenture contributed to the experience feeling very authentic.
Any words of advice for fellow peers who is considering or unsure about the Award?
Overall, I signed up for the Spotlight Award hoping to obtain some feedback to improve my applications. Upon completion, I obtained all the feedback I was after as well as a notable confidence boost to help face the often-daunting steps of an application process. I highly recommend this opportunity to anybody interested in practicing any stage of an application process, or more broadly anybody thinking of applying for a job in the near future!