Applying for an internship or graduate job can feel surprisingly unclear: how long should your CV be, do you still need a cover letter, what should you say when you don’t know an interview answer, and how much experience do employers actually expect?

To get beyond generic application advice, we looked at what recruiters and hiring teams from EY, Henkel, Forvis Mazars and Grant Thornton actually told students in CareerFairy Live Streams about CVs, applications and job interviews. This guide brings together the most useful advice, differences and real examples from those conversations, so you can use them in your next application.

The short version: recruiters consistently came back to three things: make your application relevant to the specific role, give concrete evidence instead of generic claims, and be honest about what you know and what you still need to learn. But on questions like cover letters, CV length, LinkedIn and interview follow-ups, their advice wasn’t always identical — and those differences are useful too.

What actually makes a graduate job application stand out? It’s easy to find generic advice online: tailor your CV, research the company, prepare for common interview questions. But what does that mean when a recruiter is actually looking at your application?

Across CareerFairy Live Streams, recruiters from EY, Henkel, Forvis Mazars and Grant Thornton have discussed exactly how they assess applications, what catches their attention and what students often get wrong.

Their advice is surprisingly consistent on some points and noticeably different on others.

The biggest takeaway: you do not need to look like the perfect candidate. You need to make it easy for a recruiter to understand why your experience, interests and skills make sense for this particular job.

Quick answer: What do recruiters look for in graduate applications?

Across these recruiter conversations, five things came up repeatedly:

• Relevance: Can the recruiter quickly connect your studies, internships, working-student jobs or projects to the position?
• Motivation: Do you know why you applied for this specific role and company?
• Evidence: Can you back up skills such as teamwork, communication or analytical thinking with actual examples?
• Self-awareness: Can you discuss what you do well and what you still need to learn?
• Preparation: Have you understood the job description, researched the employer and thought about what you want to ask?

Henkel made one particularly useful point for students worried that they are underqualified: you do not necessarily have to meet every requirement in a job advertisement. Some requirements are essential, but other skills can be learned on the job. The recruiters placed weight on attitude and willingness to learn as well as existing skills.

That changes how you should approach the whole application.

1. Should you tailor your CV for every graduate job?

Yes. This was one of the clearest themes across the recruiter sessions.

But tailoring your CV does not mean changing your experience or trying to game an applicant tracking system. It means changing the emphasis so the most relevant parts of your real experience are easy to find.

Henkel gave a very practical description of how recruiters do this. Their recruiters may have the job description open on one screen and your CV on another, comparing the two. Their advice was to look at the experiences, skills and terminology in the job description and, where you genuinely have that experience, describe it using similarly clear language in your CV.

EY Switzerland gave a similar example from one recruiter’s own career. He had versions of his CV tailored towards recruitment and sales roles. The underlying experience remained the same; he simply highlighted different responsibilities depending on which job he was applying for.

A practical way to tailor your CV

Before submitting your next application:

1. Put the job description next to your CV.
2. Identify the five or six most important responsibilities and requirements.
3. Find evidence in your studies, internships, working-student roles, volunteering or projects that relates to them.
4. Make that evidence easy to find.
5. Remove or shorten information that adds little to this particular application.

And save the job description.

Henkel specifically recommended downloading it as a PDF when you apply. Job adverts can disappear by the time you reach the interview, and you do not want to be invited three weeks later and realise you can no longer remember exactly what you applied for.

That is a small tip, but a genuinely useful one.

2. How long should a graduate CV be?

There is no universal rule, although the recruiters broadly agreed that students should keep their CVs concise.

EY Germany’s recruiters recommended one page for students and early-career applicants in most cases. Their argument was simple: if you have limited professional experience, one page should normally be enough to present what is relevant.

Henkel was slightly less strict. Their recruiters said one to two pages is ideal for a student starting their career, while acknowledging that experienced professionals may need more. They also explained why brevity matters: recruiters may spend less than 30 seconds on an initial CV review.

Forvis Mazars made a similar distinction: one page works well when your experience fits comfortably, but two pages are reasonable once you have accumulated enough relevant experience. The priority is readability rather than forcing everything onto a single crowded page.

So the better rule is:

Use the shortest CV that lets a recruiter quickly understand your relevant experience.

For many students, that will be one page. If cutting to one page means deleting genuinely useful internships, projects or extracurricular experience, two well-structured pages can be better than one overloaded page.

3. What should students put on a CV if they have little work experience?

Not having several internships does not mean having nothing to talk about.

Recruiters repeatedly suggested using evidence from:

• university projects
• relevant modules
• Bachelor’s or Master’s thesis work
• student organisations
• volunteering
• working-student jobs
• part-time work
• software and technical skills
• language skills

Forvis Mazars specifically suggested moving education higher on the CV when you do not yet have relevant professional experience, then making that education section more useful: relevant modules, specialisations and thesis topics can help a recruiter understand where your interests and knowledge lie.

Henkel made the same point when asked what graduates with limited experience could do: highlight projects and experience from your studies, and do not assume that work experience is worthless simply because it came from another field.

Even a seemingly unrelated student job can provide evidence for an interview. Teamwork, dealing with difficult situations, taking responsibility or training another employee can all become useful examples.

The important question is not simply:

“Have I done this exact job before?”

It is:

“What have I already done that demonstrates something useful for this job?”

4. Should you list skills like “team player” and “hard-working” on your CV?

Not without evidence.

Henkel’s recruiters were particularly direct about generic CV claims such as being a team player, hard-working or organised. Their recommendation was to replace vague labels with specific achievements, tools, methods or results.

Compare:

Weak:
“Strong team player with excellent communication skills.”

Better:
“Worked in a four-person university consulting team to analyse customer data and present recommendations to the project partner.”

The second version gives the recruiter something they can actually evaluate.

EY Switzerland similarly recommended including one or two concrete professional achievements under relevant work experiences where possible.

For a student, an “achievement” does not need to mean increasing revenue by €2 million. It might be successfully delivering a university project, organising an event, improving a process during an internship or taking responsibility for part of a team assignment.

5. Do grades matter when applying for graduate jobs?

Sometimes. But the recruiters’ answers show why there is no useful universal rule.

EY Switzerland said university ranking itself was not normally the main consideration. Recruiters were more interested in the qualification, grades and relevant internships or professional experience. For internship and first-year consultant roles, where applicants may have little work experience and application volumes can be high, academic information can become a more important data point.

Forvis Mazars recruiters similarly explained that academic performance can matter more in areas where particular knowledge is relevant, such as accounting, tax or audit. But school grades from several years earlier become much less interesting once a candidate has accumulated more relevant university or professional experience.

The practical lesson is not “grades don’t matter.”

It is:

Their importance depends on the role and on what other evidence you have.

If you are applying for your first internship with almost no professional experience, recruiters simply have fewer data points. Your degree, modules and grades may therefore receive more attention.

As you build relevant professional experience, recruiters have more evidence of what you can actually do.

6. Is practical experience important before your first graduate job?

Across these conversations, the answer was overwhelmingly yes.

EY Germany’s recruiters said practical experience was particularly important for direct-entry applicants because it demonstrates that you have already tested your interest in the field. They encouraged students to gain experience early, partly because internships help you discover whether you actually like a particular type of work or team.

Forvis Mazars gave similar advice: internships and working-student positions make the eventual transition into a full-time role easier, but they are also a way to test different career directions before committing.

This matters if you are deciding whether an internship is “worth it” when it delays graduation slightly.

Recruiters are not only looking at internships as proof that you are employable. An internship can also help you answer one of the hardest interview questions convincingly:

Why do you actually want to work in this field?

7. Do you need a cover letter in 2026?

This is one area where the recruiters did not give exactly the same answer.

At Forvis Mazars, recruiters said a cover letter is generally no longer required. If you submit one, it should explain your motivation or something the CV cannot explain, rather than repeating your career history.

Henkel also treated the cover letter more as an additional source of context than the centre of the application. Their recruiters said the CV should ideally speak for itself, while a cover letter can help explain a decision, gap or motivation.

EY Germany described cover letters as generally voluntary but potentially useful because they allow applicants to explain why they chose the company and position, what relevant skills they bring and what motivates them. Their recommendation was to keep it to a maximum of one page and potentially much shorter.

EY Switzerland, meanwhile, described the cover letter as one of the application documents its recruiters review alongside the CV and recommendation letters.

So should you write one?

First, follow the employer’s instructions.

If a cover letter is optional, it is most useful when it adds information your CV cannot communicate well, for example:

• why you are moving into a new field;
• why this particular position interests you;
• why your degree is relevant despite limited work experience;
• an unusual career step or gap that needs context.

A cover letter that simply turns your CV into paragraphs adds little.

8. Can you use ChatGPT or AI for your application?

Yes, but the recruiters repeatedly warned against outsourcing your actual thinking.

EY Germany’s recruiters suggested writing the substance of a cover letter yourself first, because your motivation and expectations are personal. AI can then help improve wording and structure.

Forvis Mazars similarly recommended AI for alternative formulations, grammar, feedback and checking whether a cover letter is concise, while warning against copying generated text directly. Recruiters said generic AI-written applications can become recognisable.

Henkel’s advice followed the same principle for LinkedIn: start with your own thoughts and story, then use AI as a second opinion for grammar, flow or alternative formulations.

So a useful rule is:

Use AI as an editor and practice partner, not as the person applying for the job.

9. Do companies use AI to automatically reject CVs?

Do not assume they do.

At the time of these CareerFairy recordings, Henkel said its applications were being reviewed by people rather than AI. Its recruiters had tested AI screening previously but said it had not worked for their process.

EY Germany likewise said that, at the time of its session, recruiters were still personally reading each CV rather than having software automatically decide which applications survived.

That does not mean every employer works this way, or that these companies’ processes will remain unchanged.

It does mean you should not destroy the readability of your CV trying to satisfy an imaginary algorithm.

Using terminology from the job description is useful primarily because it makes your relevance obvious. It can also help where an ATS is used, but your CV still needs to make sense to a human.

10. How should you prepare for a graduate job interview?

The strongest point of agreement across the recruiters was simple:

Know the company, know the role and know your own story.

EY Switzerland suggested researching the company, recent developments, relevant market trends and the specific role, then asking yourself how your experience, knowledge, skills and interests connect to it.

Forvis Mazars recruiters said one of the most common poor impressions comes from candidates who cannot explain what the company does or which responsibilities in the job description interested them.

Henkel’s recruiters similarly recommended preparing for two deceptively simple questions:

Why this company?

Why this role?

Their advice was to make the answer specific. If something about the company’s work, industry or priorities genuinely interests you, explain what and why. Then connect the role to something you have actually done: a course, student organisation, internship, project or responsibility.

11. How do you answer “Tell me about yourself”?

Do not simply read your CV from top to bottom.

Forvis Mazars recommended preparing a short introduction covering:

• who you are;
• why this role;
• why this company;
• relevant examples you can discuss later.

Henkel described a similar idea as an elevator pitch: roughly 30–60 seconds covering who you are, what you study or do professionally, what matters to you and why your background could make sense for the company.

That is a much better opening than:

“I studied at X, then I did internship Y, then I…”

Your interviewer already has your CV.

Use the introduction to give them the logic connecting those experiences.

12. How should you answer interview questions about weaknesses or failures?

The recruiters did not expect candidates to pretend they have none.

EY Germany said candidates can talk honestly about failures as long as they can explain what they learned and what they would do differently.

Forvis Mazars explained that the traditional “What is your biggest weakness?” question may appear in a less direct form, such as asking about a past challenge. A useful answer identifies the situation, explains the difficulty and shows what you are doing to improve.

Henkel went further: its recruiters explicitly said they are not looking for a perfect candidate. They want candidates who understand both their strengths and the areas where they still need development.

That suggests a better strategy than trying to disguise a strength as a weakness.

Show that you can recognise a limitation and respond to it constructively.

13. What if you don’t know the answer to an interview question?

Do not bluff.

This point came up repeatedly.

EY Germany told candidates that being unable to answer a question is not automatically a problem. Recruiters may be interested in how you approach the question using the knowledge you