How to Write a Professional CV for Australian Jobs

There is no single perfect CV format for every Australian employer. Different industries, seniority levels and roles require different emphasis. However, the strongest CVs usually share several characteristics: they are clear, factual, relevant and easy to scan.

Your objective is not to create the most decorative document. Your objective is to help the employer understand why your experience is relevant to their vacancy.

CV or Resume: What Do Australian Employers Expect?

In Australian job advertising, the terms CV and resume are both commonly encountered. Employers are generally asking for a document that summarises your relevant employment history, skills, qualifications and professional achievements.

Rather than worrying excessively about the label, focus on producing a professional document tailored to the application.

What Information Should an Australian CV Include?

A typical professional CV may contain:

• name and contact information;
• professional summary;
• key skills;
• professional experience;
• education;
• certifications;
• relevant projects where appropriate.

Contact Information

Keep this section simple. Include information employers need to contact you, such as your name, phone number, professional email address and general location.

Professional online profiles such as LinkedIn or a portfolio can also be useful when relevant to your occupation.

Professional Summary

A professional summary should give the reader an immediate understanding of your background.

Use three or four concise sentences to communicate:

• your professional field;
• relevant experience;
• important technical or operational capabilities;
• industries or environments relevant to the target role.

Avoid vague descriptions such as "hardworking", "motivated" or "results-driven" unless the surrounding content provides meaningful evidence.

Key Skills

Your skills section should contain recognisable professional skills rather than personality adjectives.

The strongest skills for the vacancy should generally receive greater visibility.

Professional Experience

For each role, clearly show:

• job title;
• employer;
• location where relevant;
• employment dates;
• key responsibilities and achievements.

Recent and relevant positions generally deserve more detail than older or unrelated roles.

How to Write Strong CV Achievement Statements

Start by explaining what you actually did. Where possible, add useful context such as the type of project, stakeholder group, system, client environment or scale of work.

Numbers can strengthen an achievement when they are accurate. Never invent a percentage or project value simply to make a statement appear more impressive.

Education and Certifications

Include relevant qualifications with the institution and completion information available to you.

Certifications should be presented using their recognised names. Do not convert general workplace training into a formal certification unless it genuinely is one.

What Should You Leave Off an Australian CV?

Remove information that is irrelevant to evaluating your professional suitability. Your CV should use its space to communicate experience, skills and qualifications.

Photographs and highly personal information are generally unnecessary unless a particular application genuinely requires them.

How Long Should an Australian CV Be?

There is no universal page count that suits every candidate. An early-career applicant may need much less space than an experienced professional with a long technical career.

The better question is whether every section contributes useful evidence for the role. Remove repetition and unnecessary detail before removing relevant experience simply to reach an arbitrary page limit.

Should You Tailor Your CV for Every Application?

Tailoring is particularly valuable for important applications. Different vacancies may prioritise different parts of your background.

Read How to Tailor Your CV to a Job Description for a practical method.

Australian CV Checklist

• Use accurate contact information.
• Write a concise professional summary.
• Prioritise job-relevant skills.
• Use clear employment dates and job titles.
• Explain responsibilities using specific language.
• Use genuine numbers where available.
• Proofread spelling and grammar carefully.
• Use clean ATS-friendly formatting.
• Tailor important applications to the vacancy.

You can also review our ATS-friendly CV guide before finalising your document.