Australian resume format: how to write a resume for Australia

Where the Australian guidance comes from

Australia has no law that fixes how a resume looks. The closest thing to an official model is the advice page of Workforce Australia, the national employment service run for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR). Its page ‘Write a resume’ was last updated on 19 February 2026; we read it on 13 October 2026, and this guide follows it section by section.

The second source is Job Jumpstart, a DEWR site for young job seekers, which publishes two free Word templates and an annotated example resume. Where the two sources add something to each other, both are named.

Resume or CV

Australian job ads and the government pages say resume. The word choice and what it means in other countries is covered in the CV vs resume guide, so it is not repeated here.

Covered in sibling guides

Work and Holiday (subclass 462) jobs, student part-time work and the CV a skills assessing authority wants each have their own page, linked at the end.

First step: choose a plain template, then read the job ad twice

1. Download a simple template; Workforce Australia points to the Job Jumpstart templates and asks for an easy-to-read font and a plain, professional layout.
2. Write a master resume with everything: Job Jumpstart calls it the base you tweak for each application instead of starting again.
3. Read the job ad and mark the skills, qualifications and personal qualities it names; these are the keywords Workforce Australia tells you to reuse.
4. Research the employer on its website and social media, then move your most relevant skills and qualifications near the top.
5. Delete anything that does not support this particular application.
6. Ask each referee for permission and confirm their phone and email.
7. Have someone you trust read it, then save it as DOCX or PDF.

How the Australian format works

About two pages

Workforce Australia says a finished resume should be about 2 pages long, and that it might be shorter or longer depending on your experience. It sets no hard limit, so a graduate with one internship can stop at one page and a senior engineer can run slightly over.

Personal details and a short summary

Your name, phone number and email go on the first page, and the email should sound professional. A LinkedIn link is optional. Most templates leave room for a personal summary: a few lines on what you offer, rewritten for each role. Hobbies may sit in this section, especially when they relate to the job.

Skills in two kinds

The page asks for job-specific skills, with examples such as project management, video editing and heavy equipment operation, and general skills such as teamwork, communication and problem-solving. You may have built them at work, in study, in hobbies or as a volunteer.

Work history, newest first, paid or unpaid

Start with your most recent job and work backwards. Each entry carries the job title, the business, when you worked there and what you did. Unpaid and volunteer work counts. If your work experience is thin, education can come before employment.

Education, then licences with expiry dates

List the most recent qualification first, with its name, the school or provider and the completion date, and include your highest level of schooling. Licences sit in the same part: a driver licence, a first aid certificate or a Responsible Service of Alcohol certificate, each with its expiry date. Informal training, such as an online course or a jobs expo, may go in when it is relevant.

Referees, asked before you list them

Workforce Australia expects contact details for referees who supervised you, in paid work, work experience or volunteering. If you worked in a family business, find a referee who is not a relative. With no job behind you, a character reference from a teacher, sports coach, neighbour or community group leader is acceptable.

What the Australian page leaves out

None of the five sections names a photo, a date of birth or marital status, and the page does not mention them anywhere. If your Turkish CV carries them, the Australian version is simpler without them; nothing in the guidance asks for them back.

Section by section, with sample lines for an applicant from Türkiye

The sample person is invented: Burak Şahin, a logistics coordinator from İzmir with six years in freight forwarding, applying to a warehouse operator in Brisbane after his visa has been granted. The order follows Workforce Australia's list.

Keep Turkish names with their letters (ş, ı, ğ) and add the country after a Turkish city once. Write dates as month and year; the Workforce Australia page does not prescribe a format, so pick one and use it everywhere.

The pre-send check, in the order the page gives it

• The layout is simple, professional and easy to read.
• Your name, phone and email are on the front page.
• Relevant skills, employment history and qualifications are all there.
• The resume is tailored to the ad and reuses its keywords.
• There are no spelling or grammar mistakes.
• Everything in it is true and correct.
• It is saved in a common format such as DOCX or PDF.

Workforce Australia also asks you to get honest feedback from someone you trust before sending. If English is your second language, choose a reader who writes it well.

Sources and the date we read them

All three pages were read on 13 October 2026. Before you rely on a detail, open the Workforce Australia page itself; government advice pages are revised without notice.

Who this format does not fit

• People without the right to work in Australia. Home Affairs says only citizens, permanent residents and New Zealand citizens on a subclass 444 visa work without conditions, and a Visitor visa or ETA allows no work at all.
• Skills assessment applicants: an assessing authority reads the CV against reference letters, which is a different job from impressing a recruiter.
• Academic posts, where a long academic CV with publications is the norm.
• Anyone hoping a resume replaces a visa decision; it does not, and the visa guides below explain what does.

Next steps and other ways to build it

• Job Jumpstart's two Word templates (functional and reverse chronological) and its example resume with tips, if you want to format by hand.
• A Workforce Australia account, which lets you upload up to 10 resumes and apply to some ads on its jobs board. We did not check who can register from outside Australia.
• CitedCV, which writes the English resume from facts you confirm. It has no Australian regional setting, so choose the UK convention (no photo) and run the checklist above before you send.

If you are going on a Work and Holiday visa, studying, or applying for a skills assessment, the matching guide below picks up where this one stops.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Workforce Australia, Write a resume (last updated 19 February 2026)www.workforceaustralia.gov.au/individuals/coaching/job-applications/resumes
2. Job Jumpstart (DEWR), Resume templates: the why and howwww.jobjumpstart.gov.au/article/resume-templates-why-and-how
3. Job Jumpstart (DEWR), Building your resumewww.jobjumpstart.gov.au/article/building-your-resume
4. Department of Home Affairs, Work restrictionsimmi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/work-rights-and-exploitation/work-restrictions
5. Department of Home Affairs, First Work and Holiday visa (subclass 462)immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/work-holiday-462/first-work-holiday-462