Top100 Future Leaders Awards

What are the Top100 Future Leaders Awards?

The Top100 Future Leaders Awards are your opportunity to make friends with students from universities across the country, gain exposure to Australia's top grad employers and have your name printed in The Australian Financial Review! These Awards provide you with a unique experience to develop your application skills, communication skills, and your personal branding, and as a Finalist you'll be able to accelerate your career.

"By being recognised as a Top100 Leader, it just opens up so many doors to you, and every employer wants to come and have a conversation with you and see what you’ve done, where you’re going." - Anthony Takyi, Head of Careers Engagement at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand

APPLICATIONS OPEN MID AUGUST

Why should you apply? (read more here!)

Networking

“I think just putting yourself out there and putting yourself through the experience of interviewing and talking to people, talk to companies that you want to one day work for. I think it is really valuable for building confidence and also reveals opportunities you might not have thought of.” - Isabella Andrews (Coles IT Top100 Future Leader Award Finalist, 2023)

Practice Applying for Jobs

"I really didn't think I was going to win but I just thought it would be a really rewarding process to go through. Like what a corporate interview is like, get that exposure to companies, and put myself out there and represent my community as well" - Saraa Al-Saddik (Transition Hub First in Family Top100 Future Leader Award Winner, 2023)

Make New Friends

"I feel like I've made some lifelong friends and I've said to several of you - we've seen each other for 12hrs and I feel like I've known you for weeks!" - Emerson Nugent (Goodman Fielder FMCG Top100 Future Leader Award Winner, 2023)

Be Inspired

"I'm going to leave this feeling very inspired by all the people I've met and really inspired by seeing so much diversity on the stage tonight - this is really cool!" - Stephanie Dunn (Quantium Data Science Top100 Future Leader Award Winner, 2023)

“I'm going to leave this feeling very inspired by all the people I've met and really inspired by seeing so much diversity on the stage tonight - this is really cool!”

Stephanie Dunn (USYD), Quantium Data Science Top100 Future Leader Award Winner 2023

How it Works

1

Application

Start your application to the Top100 Future Leaders competition here. APPLICATIONS WILL OPEN MID-AUGUST

2

Job Focussed Assessment/Skills Testing by SHL

You’ll then complete a selection of skills testing commonly used by many of Australia’s top graduate employers. The Graduate +8.0 Job Focused Assessment is designed to predict successful job performance in entry-level non-managerial professional individual contributor roles for recent university graduates. The Graduate +8.0 was developed with the additional goals of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the hiring process, creating a face valid and positive experience for candidates, and enabling global comparability.

You can take a practice test here - https://www.shl.com/shldirect/en/practice-tests/ to familiarise yourself!

3

Video Interview

Next you will complete video interview, which is an important step in a typical high-volume recruiting process. Read: What Do Employers Look for During the Top100 Future Leaders Awards?

4

Assessment Centre

"The Assessment centre is fun because you get to meet the other finalists, and the game was super chaotic!". The assessment centre is held in-person in Sydney the day before the Awards Night, and is run by Chandler Macleod. You’ll be assessed directly by employers from your award's sponsoring company! Read: Top Tips to Succeed in Graduate Assessment Centres

5

Awards Night

"The Oscars of Grad Recruitment" - held in February, the graduate employers that participate in your applicant assessments will announce the winning students at a spectacular Awards Evening Check out photos from the night and hear what our 2023 winners took away from their experience - asides from the awards themselves!

6

AFR

All finalists, winners and universities are published in the AFR alongside our results for the Top100 graduate employers.

Our 2025 Top100 Future Leader Awards

Ashurst Law Top100 Future Leader Award

A truly global firm with a reputation for high performance, a wealth of industry experience and a refreshingly open and diverse culture: this is who we are. For you, this means being part of a collab… read more

BDO Accounting Top100 Future Leader Award

At BDO we are passionate about creating opportunities for individuals to grow and flourish early in their career with an array of career paths available. Our Graduate, Undergraduate and Vacation prog… read more

Clifford Chance Social Impact Top100 Future Leader Award

Clifford Chance is one of the world's pre-eminent law firms with significant depth and range of resources across five continents. As a single, fully integrated, global partnership, we pride ours… read more

CommBank Brighter Communities Top100 Future Leader Award

Whether you’re passionate about customer service, driven by data, or called by creativity, a career with CommBank is for you.Our people bring their diverse backgrounds and unique perspectives to buil… read more

EY Innovation Top100 Future Leader Award

As a global leader in assurance, tax, strategy and transactions and consulting, our ambition is to solve the world’s toughest problems. That starts with a culture that believes in giving you the trai… read more

Optus Business and Commerce Top100 Future Leader Award

The Optus Graduate Program empowers you to craft the career you want, with resources, training & unwavering support at every step. Whether you’re ready to embrace your ambitions, or looking to di… read more

Quantium Data Science Top100 Future Leader Award

Quantium is a global leader in the application of data analytics and engineering, helping individuals, organisations and society solve important problems using data. We have a track record of innovat… read more

Suncorp Technology Top100 Future Leader Award

Suncorp is home to Australia and New Zealand’s most trusted names in financial services. We are a sustainable and responsible financial services Group that helps our customers, people, shareholders … read more

Unilever Sustainability & FMCG Top100 Future Leader Award

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care, and Foods & Refreshment products, with sales in over 190 countries and products used by 3.4 billion peop… read more

Westpac Banking, Insurance & Financial Services Top100 Future Leader Award

Westpac is Australia’s first bank and oldest company, one of four major banking organisations in Australia and one of the largest banks in New Zealand.When you join Westpac Group, you’ll be empowered… read more

Transition Hub First in Family Top100 Future Leader Award

Transition Hub brings together teams of expert coaches to work with diverse cohorts of graduates, professionals, leaders, athletes, defence personnel and entrepreneurs.Through a dynamic shared develo… read more

Student Eligibility

To apply, you must:

Currently & continue to reside in Australia into Feb 2025.
Be enrolled as a student at an Australian university and be continuing your study into 2025 (undergraduate or postgraduate).
Be available to attend a full day’s assessment centre and the awards evening that follows, if required, in February 2025.
Be registered on GradConnection. It's free and easy to sign up!

Reside outside of the greater Sydney area?

Should you reside outside of the greater Sydney area, GradConnection will organise your return flights and accommodation so you may attend. This is subject to terms.

For further information, please contact: [email protected]