Australia Resume Format (2026): Australian Resume and CV Rules With Example

Australian employers want to know how to contact you and whether you can legally work here. They don't need your age, appearance or family situation.

Include

• Name, suburb and state, mobile number and a professional email
• LinkedIn or portfolio link
• Working rights: "Australian citizen", "Full working rights (permanent resident)" or your visa and its end date
• Licences and checks relevant to the job (driver licence, Working with Children Check, police check)

Leave out

Leave out	Why
Photo	Not expected, and it invites bias
Date of birth or age	Age is protected under federal and state law
Marital status, children, pregnancy	Protected attributes
Religion, political opinion, health	Protected attributes
Tax File Number (TFN), bank details	Only needed after you're hired; identity-theft risk

Australia's anti-discrimination protection comes from several federal laws, covering age, sex, race and disability, plus state and territory laws. The Fair Work Ombudsman explains that workplace laws also protect prospective employees, not only current staff, from discrimination on attributes such as race, sex, age, disability, marital status, family or carer's responsibilities, pregnancy, religion and political opinion. Leaving these details off keeps the focus on your skills.

The Queensland Government's guide to resumes and cover letters suggests aiming for one to three pages depending on how long you've been working, with a neat, simple layout, headings and dot points. It lists what employers look for: contact details, career strengths, employment history, education and training, achievements and referees.

In practice:

• Students and graduates: one to two pages.
• Experienced professionals: two to three pages. Australians tolerate a third page more than US recruiters do, but not filler.
• Older roles: summarize anything from more than about 10 to 15 years ago in one line each.

A few Australian habits worth copying:

1. Describe little-known employers in one line ("Tier 2 civil contractor, 250 staff"), especially if they're overseas.
2. Put licences and checks where they're easy to find. For trades, care, education and hospitality roles, recruiters screen on these first.
3. Use "dot points" and Australian spelling: organise, colour, centre, licence (noun), and "program" (Australians generally don't use "programme").

Weak: Responsible for customer complaints.

Strong: Resolved 25–30 customer complaints a week for a Sydney energy retailer, cutting escalations to the Ombudsman by a third over 12 months.

For job-specific bullets, see our resume examples, such as the nurse and electrician examples.

Many government jobs, and some university, health and not-for-profit roles, ask you to address selection criteria: a list of skills, knowledge and experience the role requires. The Queensland Government notes they may also be called core or key capabilities, and that your responses should show, with relevant examples, that you meet them, using dot points where appropriate.

Formats vary. Some employers want a separate document responding to each criterion; many Australian Public Service jobs on APSJobs instead ask for a short "pitch" or statement of claims against the role. Always follow the word or page limit in the job pack.

A reliable way to write each response is the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result):

Criterion: Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities.

Response: As team leader at a regional council customer service centre (Situation), I was responsible for rostering 12 staff during a system migration while keeping wait times on target (Task). I split the team into migration and frontline groups, rotated them weekly and set daily check-ins (Action). We completed the migration two weeks early, and average wait times stayed within the 15-minute target throughout (Result).

Keep your resume consistent with your responses; panels read both side by side.

Where Australian jobs are advertised:

• Seek, the dominant commercial job board, plus LinkedIn and Indeed.
• Workforce Australia, the Australian Government's employment services platform with a job search.
• APSJobs for federal public service roles, and state portals such as I Work for NSW, Smart Jobs (Queensland) and Careers.vic.
• Recruitment agencies, which are widely used for professional, IT, mining, construction and temporary roles.

Large employers and many agencies screen applications with an applicant tracking system (ATS), such as Workday, SAP SuccessFactors or PageUp. Use a single-column layout, standard headings and the job ad's keywords. Our guide to making your resume ATS-friendly explains how, and EZProCV's templates export text-based PDFs that ATS software can read.

Cover letters

Australian employers generally expect a cover letter. The Queensland Government advises one page, addressed to the contact person, tailored to the job and not a summary of your resume. Open with the role and a strong reason to read on, give one or two pieces of evidence, and close with your availability. "Dear Ms Nguyen" and "Kind regards" are standard. Start from a cover letter template or read how to write a cover letter that gets read.

Australian employers must make sure the people they hire are allowed to work, and many check a visa holder's work entitlements through the Department of Home Affairs' VEVO service. That's why a clear work-rights line near the top of your resume matters so much here: recruiters often filter on it first.

Common situations, and what to write:

• Permanent resident or citizen: "Full working rights (Australian citizen)".
• Temporary visa with work rights: name it and give the end date, for example "Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), valid to March 2028" or "Working Holiday visa".
• Need employer sponsorship: say so honestly, in your cover letter or the application question. Employer-sponsored routes include the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and permanent employer nomination visas, each with its own occupation and salary requirements.
• Overseas qualifications: give the Australian context and note any skills assessment or registration (for example AHPRA for health professionals, or an Engineers Australia assessment).
• Remove international extras: photo, date of birth, nationality and passport number.

Visa programs, occupation lists and salary thresholds change. As of October 2026, check the Department of Home Affairs before applying. This page is general guidance, not migration advice; for your own case, use a registered migration agent or the official site.