I first discovered The Undergraduate of The Year Awards in my first year at University at Cardiff and viewed it as an incredibly unrealistic opportunity for me, I still tried for the sake of curiosity and handed in a basic submission that I did not feel was personal to me. This introduced me to the important clue for applications, that personality is the most important qualification you need to display.

In my second year, after exploring my career interests more, I saw the Insurance category and felt incredibly excited that the field of finance I felt most enticed was looking for undergraduate talent. This was a very special opportunity for me to combine interests in my life, advocate for myself, and approach the application as a fun chance for me to demonstrate my passions and ideas.

I took my time answering the four questions with five-hundred-word limits and felt approaching it as a conversation saw the word count fly by. This made the congratulations email so much more rewarding as I felt personally validated in my career choice. This also removed the nasty sense of doubt you can feel at university. I continued my relaxed and conversational approach throughout the application process, and I feel this helped me gain the most confidence out of the experience.

Following online math tests, I was invited to a pre-recorded online interview, which demonstrated the award’s flexibility but also their awareness of the stress and pressure that can be felt during and before interviews. I was given as many chances as needed to record my answers and found that because of this I only needed to record each answer once. After making it to the top ten finalists, communication remained very clear and supportive, and the next steps were designed to really celebrate the finalists.

I was invited to Allianz UK, my category sponsors’ office, where we were given a wide range of introductions, insights, tours and opportunities to connect with each other. This completely eased my nerves for the ceremony as we all commuted together and explored the beautiful venue, The Pelligon.

Not only did the Insurance category shock me for relevance but the surprise host Jamie Lang felt even more on the nose. I had recently been binging Made in Chelsea to survive assessments and listening to his podcast in the gym, so it was unbelievably exciting to watch him host and sneak a picture with him.

I have experienced success and failure in both years applying for the awards and received equal amounts of kindness, encouragement, and feedback from both outcomes. So from this, the biggest take should be that those who did not expect to get far at all in this opportunity managed to make it to the top ten and receive their dream internship. I had complete self-doubt, and this did not limit my experience so there is nothing limiting others.