How To Write A CV Australian-Style

If you’re on an Australian working holiday, you might think that you can just take the same CV you used in your home country and use it in Australia. But you need to make your CV Australia-friendly. Here are some tips how to write your CV Australian-style.

Write A Description Of Your Previous Employers

You may have worked for a company that is big business back home, but completely unknown in Australia. Write a brief description about previous employers – especially if they’re important or highly respected, but unheard of elsewhere.

Presenting Contact Details

Your name, address, phone number and email address should appear in the top centre of the page. In case printed pages get separated, print your name, phone number and email address on every page. Also make sure the email address you give is a professional-sounding one and not one you created when you were 12. If you don’t have a professional email address, get one.

The Personal Details You Don’t Have To Give

You do not have to provide your date of birth/age or marital status, but you can if you want to.

How Many Pages?

In Australia, anyone that has been in the workforce for some time is encouraged to have a CV of three to five pages. Even uni graduates should fill two pages. This can be a shock to some newcomers to Australia, particularly those from the UK or USA, who have been used to fitting their employment history on one page.

Keep The Layout Simple

With more pages to fill, you need to keep the layout extra simple. Bolding or underlining subheadings is fine, but don’t do both; use dot points but keep to one style; and use a font style that everyone used to reading like Times New Roman or Arial.