Thea Kendall-Green: Spotlight Award
Thea is an MLitt student studying Peacebuilding and Mediation. She will graduate in 2026. Thea completed the Award in 2025.
What made you want to complete the Award?
As someone who is currently in the thick of looking for a job, I decided to pursue the award mostly to make sure my application materials were of good quality and to get more practice with my interview skills.
How did you find the application process for the Award and what did you learn from it?
The Skills Spotlight Award is a mock application process that the Career Centre puts on to help students prepare and feel more confident when it comes time to find employment. First, you will submit a cover letter and resume to a job posting of your choice. You will then get feedback on those and potentially be invited to partake in a recorded interview. The top performers of the first two stages will be invited to a mock assessment centre activity where an actual graduate employer will be present.
The Career Centre gives you loads of helpful feedback throughout every step of the process. This could be particularly useful at the resume and cover letter stage if you have never had a second pair of eyes on these documents before.
All in all, I found the process very easy to fit in during the semester. And if it can put your mind at ease at all, I say this as someone who worked 20 hours a week, was on the basketball team, did theatre, and was part of the Amnesty International Society Committee.
Tell us how you found the employer-led assessment centre
I had never participated in an assessment centre before, so I found that stage particularly useful. It was great to replicate the pressure of external interviewers in a less high stakes and more supportive environment. Though I am not planning to go into the field of the company that was at my assessment centre, I imagine it would be an even more lucrative experience for those who did have that overlap.
Any words of advice for fellow peers who are considering or unsure about the Award?
If you are feeling unsure whether to undertake the award, I would highly recommend just giving it a go—it can only help you! Especially for those already applying to jobs, the first stage will take practically no time at all. Simply choose a recent application you have submitted/one you are planning to submit soon and upload the resume and cover letter you have for that. The second stage will require slightly more time commitment, but you get to choose when to record the interviews, so you can make it work around your schedule.
When undertaking the (often gruelling) enterprise of finding a job, there is no reason not to use all the resources this university offers. And who better to assist you in this endeavour than those whose very job it is to do so?
Many thanks to those at the Career Centre who gave their time and energy into this programme, and I hope any future students reading this will be able to get as much out of the Skills Spotlight as I did!