What’s the HYPE
HYPE = Helping Young People Elevate
Hype Awards is the UK’s first student-judged and run employer awards show and conference, built to spotlight the brands actually getting it right with students.
We flip the script: employers submit their campaigns, onboarding experiences, and grad strategies, and a diverse panel of real students gives the verdict. Forget polished PR. These awards are about perception, authenticity, and impact, judged by the people you’re trying to hire. It’s raw, honest, content-driven insight. You earn the most trusted badge in early careers: Hype Certified.
WHY WE EXIST
Because employer awards are broken. They’re judged by panels too far removed from the people who actually live the experience.
They reward branding, not impact. Perception, not reality. We believe the only people qualified to judge early careers programmes… are the people you’re building them for –Students. Grads. School leavers. Not executives. Not consultants. Not committees.
Hype Awards exists to give them the mic and make their voice the new gold standard for what good looks like in early careers.
Meet the co-founders
We’ve worked behind the scenes on grad schemes, employer brands, and student campaigns. We’ve seen the disconnect between what employers think students want and what they actually want. So we built the thing we knew was missing.
Co-FounDER
Erik Rivas
Erik Rivas is a strategist and early-careers specialist passionate about uniting student voices with employer brands. Over the years, Erik has worked on graduate campaigns, university partnerships, and youth-led content, sitting at the intersection where Gen Z meets recruitment. He’s witnessed first-hand the mismatch between what employers think students want and what students actually expect. Now, with Hype Awards, Erik is reversing the power dynamic, putting students at the centre of judgment and elevating employer accountability.
Co-FounDER
Sir Albert
Tom a strategist and early-careers specialist passionate about uniting student voices with employer brands. Over the years, Erik has worked on graduate campaigns, university partnerships, and youth-led content studios — sitting at the intersection where Gen Z meets recruitment. He’s witnessed first-hand the mismatch between what employers think students want and what students actually expect. Now, with Hype Awards, Tom is reversing the power dynamic — putting students at the centre of judgment and elevating employer accountability.
