• College graduation season is here, which means a fresh wave of new grads entering the workforce.
• EY's global talent leader, Irmgard Naudin ten Cate, has 4 pieces of advice for them.
• Her tips center on AI, soft skills, networking, and job experience.

The Class of 2025 is preparing to enter the workforce, and it can be a daunting prospect.

In a conversation with Business Insider, Irmgard Naudin ten Cate, global talent attraction and acquisition leader at the Big Four firm EY, told us about the key pieces of advice she shares with college students preparing to embark on their careers.

She said students should lean into networking early, be open to trying out job simulations, prepare with AI, and emphasize soft skills in interviews.

Develop your soft skills

Naudin ten Cate said it's important to highlight soft skills as well as more technical skills in your job application materials and interviews.

She puts a premium on three in particular: curiosity, adaptability, and your ability to wield influence and negotiate at work.

Whatever soft skills you may have, make sure you show they're transferable and "articulate to your future employers what that looks like for your success," she said.

Use AI responsibly

Naudin ten Cate said there are many ways you can use AI (responsibly, she emphasizes) in your job search.

"You can do so much research into the job, the company that you want to work with" by using AI, she said.

A chatbot can help you decide the questions to ask your interviewers, or prepare for the questions they might ask you, she notes. You can paste in a job description for an appealing job and your résumé, and ask it to pinpoint any overlaps you should highlight.

"I think that if you use AI responsibly, I think it's so helpful and so powerful because you don't have to go into all of these records," she said. "You can really prepare yourself and use it in the best way possible. So for the job search and job preparation, I think it's super important."

Network early and often

"It takes many building blocks to build your brand," she said.

She said students should start networking sooner rather than later in their college years, but it's never too late to start and is crucial at any point in their careers.

Connecting with your peers, professors, or people you may know from a summer job or internship is a great way to start networking early in your college years, she added.

"I think it's around really thinking, with everyone that I interact with, how do I network with purpose?" she said.

Try job simulations

Trying virtual job simulations or online courses can help you gain insight into what it's like to work in a certain job or company.

"There's many opportunities like that and I would really encourage people to look at them because it's really important that you see what that job looks like, and it sets you apart because it shows that you've done a lot of investigation in making yourself prepared for the job search," Naudin ten Cate said.

Some also grant badges or certifications that can give you a leg up in the job search.

"There are so many fantastic job simulations," she added. "It's all about making sure that you use them."

• Notable speakers have taken the stage at college graduation ceremonies in recent weeks.
• They've given new grads advice on taking risks, building community, and navigating AI at work.
• Here are some highlights.

High-profile writers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and actors are making their annual rounds through college commencement ceremonies.

They're dispensing some of their best advice to new grads preparing to take on the challenges that lie ahead, talking about everything from taking chances, surrounding yourself with the right people, and understanding your place in an AI-enabled workplace.

Here are some standout pieces of advice to the Class of 2025 from 10 commencement speakers.

Tech journalist Steven Levy

"You do have a great future ahead of you, no matter how smart and capable ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama get," author and tech journalist Steven Levy told graduates at the Temple University College of Liberal Arts on May 7.

"And here is the reason: You have something that no computer can ever have. It's a superpower, and every one of you has it in abundance," he said, according to Wired.

"The lords of AI are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to make their models think like accomplished humans. You have just spent four years at Temple University learning to think as accomplished humans. The difference is immeasurable," he said.

"Everything you have learned in the liberal arts — the humanities — depends on that connection. You bring your superpower to it."

Actor Jennifer Coolidge

"When you find the thing that you want to do, I really want to highly recommend — just friggin' go for it," Jennifer Coolidge, the star of HBO's White Lotus, told graduates at Emerson College on May 12.

"You really have to psych yourself up into bleeding absurd possibilities, and you have to believe that they are not absurd because there's nothing foolish or accidental about expecting things that are unattainable for yourself."

Kermit the Frog

Everyone's favorite Muppet shared "a little advice — if you're willing to listen to a frog" at the University of Maryland's commencement ceremony on May 22.

"Rather than jumping over someone to get what you want, consider reaching out your hand and taking the leap side by side. Because life is better when we leap together."

Actor Elizabeth Banks

"You're about to enter the incredibly competitive job market, so I can understand why you believe that life is a zero-sum game, that there's only so much opportunity to go around," actor Elizabeth Banks told graduates of the University of Pennsylvania on May 19.

"And if one person takes a bigger slice, everyone else has to make a smaller slice, and the total size of the pie remains the same. And that is true with actual pie," she said.

"But not with life, not with opportunity. So my advice to you is, as much as possible from here on out, take yourself out of that mindset."

Physician and author Abraham Verghese

Physician and author Abraham Verghese told Harvard graduates on May 29 to "make your decisions worthy of those who supported, nurtured, and sacrificed for you."

"The decisions you will make in the future under pressure will say something about your character, while they also shape and transform you in unexpected ways," he said.

Verghese also encouraged the Class of 2025 to read fiction.

"To paraphrase Camus, fiction is the great lie that tells the truth about how the world lives," he said. "And if you don't read fiction, my considered medical opinion is that a part of your brain responsible for active imagination atrophies."

Actor Henry Winkler

Actor Henry Winkler spoke about the power of positive thinking in his May 17 address to graduates of the Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences.

"A negative thought comes into your mind, you say out loud — you say out loud — 'I am sorry, I have no time for you now,'" he said. "Yes, people will look at you very strangely. But it doesn't matter. Because it becomes your habit."

Instead, when faced with doubts and negative thoughts about your goals, "you move it out; you move a positive in," he said.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told graduates of Princeton University on May 25 that "the combination of luck, the courage to make mistakes, and a little initiative can lead to much success."

"We risk failure, awkwardness, embarrassment, and rejection," he said. "But that's how we create the career opportunities, the great friendships, and the loves that make life worth living."

He reminded graduates that "each of us is a work in progress" and "the possibilities for self-improvement are limitless."

"The vast majority of what you need to know about work, about relationships, about yourself, about life, you have yet to learn," Powell said. "And that itself is a tremendous gift."

Y Combinator cofounder Jessica Livingston

Jessica Livingston, cofounder of startup accelerator Y Combinator, told Bucknell University graduates to "find the interesting people."

"Talk to people. Get introduced to new people. Find the people that you think are interesting, and then ask what they're working on. And if you find yourself working at a place where you don't like the people, get out," she said in her May 18 speech.

She also advised the Class of 2025 that "you can reinvent yourself" at any time.

"If you want to, you can just decide to shift gears at this point, and no one's going to tell you you can't," she said. "You can just decide to be more curious, or more responsible, or more energetic, and no one's going to look up your college grades and say, 'Hey, wait a minute. This person's supposed to be a slacker!'"

S&P Global CEO Martina L. Cheung

"Don't collect promotions. Collect experiences," S&P Global President and CEO Martina L. Cheung told graduates of George Mason University.

In her May 15 address, Cheung shared how lateral moves in her own career later prepared her for promotions.

"Most people think of their careers as a ladder," she said. "They see the goal as climbing the ladder with promotions or leaving one job to take a bigger one elsewhere. The truth is, moving up is not the only direction. It's not even always the best direction. Sometimes it's the lateral move."

YouTuber Hank Green

Writer and science YouTuber Hank Green reminded MIT graduates in his May 29 speech to stay curious.

"Your curiosity is not out of your control," he said. "You decide how you orient it, and that orientation is going to affect the entire rest of your life. It may be the single most important factor in your career."

Green also emphasized the importance of taking chances on your ideas.

"Ideas do not belong in your head," he said. "They can't help anyone in there. I sometimes see people become addicted to their good idea. They love it so much, they can't bring themselves to expose it to the imperfection of reality. Stop waiting. Get the ideas out. You may fail, but while you fail, you will build new tools."

He closed his speech on this inspiring note: "Do not forget how special and bizarre it is to get to live a human life. It took 3 billion years for the Earth to go from single-celled life forms to you. That's more than a quarter of the life of the entire universe. Something very special and strange is happening on this planet and it is you."

• Internships are commonly filled by high school or college students.
• But graduates may increasingly be leaning on internships in a cooling job market.
• "It's harder and harder for folks to get onto the career ladder in the first place," Glassdoor lead economist Daniel Zhao told BI.

As anyone looking for a job now can probably attest, the job market is cooling.

A rising number of recent college graduates applying to internships could be a sign of these challenging times.

Careers site Glassdoor this week released its list of the best internships of 2025, based on median salary, overall reviews, and ratings of workplace factors like career opportunities, culture and values, and work-life balance.

In the report, Danny Cao, who leads the company's internship program, spoke of a trend he's seen among their own prospective interns.

"While the majority of our internship applicants are current students, I've noticed a slight increase this year in recent graduates applying for summer internships," he noted in the report. "This could potentially be a growing trend that showcases how internships are evolving into a stepping stone for not only students but also early-career professionals navigating a challenging job market."

Trainee programs and apprenticeships aren't unheard of for recent graduates. But more new grads applying for internships that are traditionally filled by students could mean early-career workers are struggling to find job prospects out of college.

"The fact that you have more of these new grads applying to internships is a sign of the slower job market and the bunching that we're getting down at the bottom of the career ladder where progress up the career ladder has slowed," Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor, told BI.

"Whether that means new grads or interns, there is this difficulty that folks are facing with getting their foot in the door in the first place," Zhao said. "So some new grads are turning to internships to get their foot in the door, whereas in a hotter job market, they would just go straight to an entry-level job."

Glassdoor's report pointed out that last year saw the most competitive season for internships since the pandemic. Applicant pool aside, a dearth of internships from employers' end is also contributing to the cut-throat competition.

"As companies have slowed down hiring, they've also pulled back on entry-level and new grad opportunities in addition to internships as well, so that's I think why we're seeing such high competition this year," said Zhao. "The slower job market overall means that companies are less willing to invest in their internship programs this season."

So what should applicants do in a highly competitive market? It's important to remember to "consider the rest of the applicant pool," Zhao said.

His advice is to look for a qualification that can differentiate you, whether it's additional project experience or even a past internship that may not be particularly on-topic but can add interesting value to your application.

"It's really important to stand out and to really try to make your application pop so that it gets that second look over from the hiring manager," he said. "Ultimately, your goal as an applicant is not to show that you are qualified for the job, but to show that you are the best candidate for the job."