Writing an Australian-Style CV, Resume and Cover Letter

Resumes in Australia follow their own conventions, which can differ quite a bit from the CV style used elsewhere. An application laid out by habit from back home — with a portrait photo, a date of birth and long lists of duties — can easily be screened out in the first round, even when you are more than qualified. This article sets out the Australian standard so you do not lose an opportunity over formatting.

”CV” or “resume” in Australia?

In Australia, the words “CV” and “resume” are generally used interchangeably to mean a job application document. A job advertisement might ask you to “submit your CV” or “send your resume” — essentially they mean the same thing: a short document summarising your experience, skills and education.

The one distinction worth noting is the academic CV — a long-form document used in research and university settings that lists publications, papers and scholarships in full. This is the exception, used for academic applications. For ordinary jobs, you always use the short, results-focused version.

What to leave OUT

This is the biggest point of difference from a back-home CV style. In an Australian application, you do not include:

A portrait photo
Date of birth or age
Gender
Marital status
Religion or nationality of origin (beyond your work-eligibility status)
ID card or passport numbers

The reason lies in Australia’s anti-discrimination laws in recruitment. Employers are expected to assess candidates on merit, not on the personal characteristics listed above. Many companies actively ask candidates not to send a photo to avoid bias. So a resume with a photo and a date of birth does not make you look “more complete” — on the contrary, it signals that you are not yet familiar with how things work in Australia.

The structure of a standard Australian resume

A standard Australian resume usually contains the following sections, in this order:

Contact details: name, phone number, email, LinkedIn link, and your city/state. You do not need a full home address — just the area, so the employer knows you live near the workplace.
Professional summary: two to four sentences on who you are, your key strengths and the role you are seeking.
Key skills: a short list of your core skills, ideally matching the wording in the job advertisement.
Work experience: the most important section — written by achievement, not as a list of duties (see below).
Education: qualifications, where you studied, year of graduation.
Certifications: professional certificates, licences and relevant courses.
References: usually “Available on request” is enough.

Australian resumes tend to be concise, commonly around two pages. The goal is for the reader to grasp your value in the first few seconds of skimming, not to list everything you have ever done.

Writing experience by achievement (STAR)

This is the most important shift in mindset. A back-home CV tends to list duties (“Responsible for warehouse management”, “In charge of customer care”). An Australian resume focuses on the results you achieved.

An easy way to apply this is the STAR framework — Situation, Task, Action, Result — condensed into a single achievement line:

Begin each bullet point with a strong action verb: “Led”, “Designed”, “Reduced”, “Implemented”, “Increased”.
State what you did and what the result was, rather than just describing the role.
Quantify where you can: how much you cut processing time by, how many people you managed, how many orders you handled. These are figures about your own achievements and are entirely appropriate to include — they make an application far more convincing.

For example, instead of “Responsible for customer support”, write “Handled an average of over 40 customer requests per day while maintaining satisfaction above 95%”. Same job, but the second version shows concrete value.

The Australian cover letter

In Australia, a cover letter is usually still expected, especially when the advertisement asks for one. The core principles:

Tailor it to each role. A generic letter sent en masse is easy to spot. Name the specific company and position, and connect your experience to what the advertisement asks for.
Keep it short — usually one page, three to four paragraphs. Open by stating the role you are applying for, use the body to explain why you are a good fit, and close with an invitation to make contact.
Address the right person if you know them. If the advertisement names the person in charge, open with “Dear [name]”. If unclear, “Dear Hiring Manager” is safe.

Do not repeat your resume word for word. The cover letter is where you tell, briefly, the story of why you want this role and what you can bring.

Optimising for ATS

Many Australian companies, especially large ones and recruitment platforms, use an automated filtering system (ATS — Applicant Tracking System) before an application reaches a real person. To get through this filtering step:

Use keywords that match the advertisement. If they are looking for “customer service” or “stakeholder management”, use those exact phrases (when they genuinely apply to you).
Keep the formatting simple. Use clear, standard section headings (“Work Experience”, “Education”).
Avoid complex tables, multi-column layouts, images, text boxes and icons. ATS often misreads or ignores content placed inside these elements.
Submit in the requested format — usually PDF or Word; if the advertisement specifies one, follow it exactly.

A visually striking resume full of tables and graphics can be read by an ATS as a garbled mess and discarded before anyone gets to look at it.

Tips for those without Australian experience

Many newcomers worry that “no Australian experience” means they cannot get a job. A few ways to close the gap:

Present your overseas experience clearly and convert the context. Australian employers may not know the company or project scale you worked on overseas — add a short description (“a retail company of 200 employees”, “a project serving over 10,000 users”) so they can picture the scope.
Add Australian activities: volunteering, short courses and local certificates all show that you are integrating and being proactive.
Seek a local reference. A referee in Australia — a part-time work manager, a lecturer, or where you volunteered — carries great weight, because an employer can easily contact them to verify.

The goal is to help the reader connect your experience to the Australian context, rather than leaving them to guess.

Learn more

How to find a job in Australia for newcomers.
IT pathway from overseas to PR.

An Australian-standard resume does not have to be “pretty” — it needs to be clear, results-focused and respectful of local conventions. When you drop the things that do not belong in an Australian application and focus on concrete achievements, you are already ahead of many candidates from the very first screening round.

Last updated: 13/06/2026. Recruitment practices can change — check each employer’s requirements.