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Use professional field-tested resume templates that follow the exact Resume rules employers look for.
Create ResumeAn Australian resume should be clear, modern, achievement focused, and easy for a recruiter to scan in under a minute. The strongest template is not the fanciest one. It is the one that helps employers quickly understand your role, level, industry fit, impact, and relevance to the job. In Australia, your resume should usually include your name, contact details, professional summary, key skills, work experience, education, certifications, and relevant extras such as technical skills or selected achievements. It should not include a photo, date of birth, marital status, or personal details that do not help a hiring decision.
I see a lot of candidates overcomplicate this. They worry about colours, columns, graphics, and whether their resume looks “professional”. Hiring teams are usually asking a much simpler question: Can this person do the job, and can I see that quickly?
A strong Australian resume template should follow a logical order that supports how recruiters actually screen applications. Most recruiters do not read resumes from top to bottom like a novel. We scan, compare, pause, reject, shortlist, and then come back for detail.
Your resume needs to survive that first scan.
Use this structure:
Name and contact details
Professional title or target role
Professional summary
Key skills
Work experience
Education and qualifications
Certifications and licences
Use this as a practical Australian resume template. Keep it clean, simple, and easy to edit for each application.
Name
Phone:
Email:
Location: City, State
LinkedIn: Optional
Portfolio or website: Optional
Professional Title
Example: Marketing Coordinator | Administrative Assistant | Project Manager | Registered Nurse | Software Developer
Professional Summary
Write three to five lines that explain your role, experience level, industry background, strongest capabilities, and the type of value you bring.
Key Skills
Skill relevant to the job
Skill relevant to the job
Skill relevant to the job
Technical skills or tools
Volunteer work, projects, or achievements where relevant
Referees statement
This format works because it gives recruiters the information they need in the order they usually look for it. The top third of the resume helps them decide whether to keep reading. The work experience section proves whether the summary is credible. The education and extras support the decision rather than distract from it.
The mistake I see constantly is candidates treating their resume like a life archive. A resume is not a complete history of everything you have ever done. It is a positioning document. Its job is to make the right parts of your background obvious for the role you want now.
Skill relevant to the job
Skill relevant to the job
Skill relevant to the job
Work Experience
Job Title
Company Name, Location
Month Year to Month Year
Briefly explain the company context if useful, especially if the employer is not well known. Then use achievement focused bullet points.
Describe a responsibility with scale, impact, tools, stakeholders, or outcome
Describe an achievement using numbers, improvements, savings, growth, quality, compliance, speed, or customer impact
Describe how you solved a problem, improved a process, supported a team, or delivered a result
Describe relevant systems, methods, industries, or stakeholder groups
Education
Qualification
Institution Name, Location
Year Completed or Expected Completion
Certifications and Licences
Certification name, issuing organisation, year
Licence name, issuing organisation, year
Technical Skills
System, platform, software, tool, language, equipment, or method
System, platform, software, tool, language, equipment, or method
Additional Experience or Projects
Use this only if relevant. Include volunteer work, freelance projects, placements, internships, board roles, or major projects that strengthen your application.
Referees
Available upon request.
Australian resumes are usually more detailed than a short American style resume, but they should still be focused. In most cases, two to four pages is acceptable depending on your experience level, industry, and seniority.
A graduate or early career candidate may only need one to two pages. A mid level professional often needs two to three pages. A senior leader, technical specialist, academic, health professional, or project based candidate may need more, but length only works when the content earns its space.
Australian employers generally expect direct, practical information. They want to see:
What roles you have held
Where you worked
How long you stayed
What industries you understand
What responsibilities you managed
What outcomes you delivered
Whether your experience matches the job level
Whether your resume feels credible and current
What they do not need is personal information that does not relate to the role. Do not include your age, marital status, religion, nationality, full street address, Medicare details, passport number, or a photo unless a very specific industry or application process asks for something unusual.
This is where candidates sometimes get caught between old advice and current hiring practice. Years ago, people included more personal details because resumes were treated more like formal biographies. Modern hiring is different. Good recruiters are looking for evidence, relevance, and risk signals. Your personal life is not the selling point. Your fit for the role is.
When I open a resume, I am not admiring the formatting first. I am trying to answer a few practical questions quickly.
I look at your current or most recent role, your previous employers, your job titles, your dates, your industry background, and whether the resume appears aligned with the role you applied for. Then I look for evidence. Not claims. Evidence.
A candidate may say they are “results driven”, “highly motivated”, and “excellent at stakeholder management”. That tells me almost nothing. But if they show they managed three internal teams, improved reporting turnaround, reduced customer escalations, supported a system migration, or handled a portfolio of 80 clients, now there is something to assess.
Recruiters are usually screening under time pressure. That does not mean they do not care. It means your resume has to make relevance obvious. If the role needs payroll experience and your payroll experience is buried on page three under vague admin duties, that is not a recruiter problem. That is a positioning problem.
Strong resumes reduce the effort required to see fit.
Weak resumes force the reader to investigate.
And in a busy hiring process, forced investigation often loses.
Your professional summary should not sound like a motivational poster. It should quickly tell the employer who you are professionally and why your background fits the role.
A good Australian resume summary usually includes:
Your professional identity
Years or level of experience where helpful
Relevant industries or environments
Core strengths linked to the role
A practical value statement
Weak Example
I am a hardworking, passionate and reliable professional with excellent communication skills. I work well in a team and independently. I am looking for an opportunity to grow and contribute to a successful organisation.
This sounds pleasant, but it could belong to almost anyone. It gives no role, no level, no industry, no evidence, and no hiring reason.
Good Example
Administrative professional with five years of experience supporting busy office, finance, and operations teams across health and professional services environments. Skilled in diary management, customer service, document control, invoicing, and stakeholder coordination. Known for improving team organisation, resolving administrative bottlenecks, and keeping daily operations moving without drama.
The good version works because it gives context. It tells me where the candidate has worked, what they can do, and what kind of value they bring. It also sounds human without becoming fluffy.
A strong summary does not need to oversell you. It needs to orient the reader.
The key skills section is useful, but only when it is specific. Many candidates use it as a dumping ground for generic traits. That is a waste of prime resume space.
Avoid skills like:
Hardworking
Team player
Reliable
Fast learner
Good communication
Attention to detail
These are not useless qualities, but they are weak as standalone resume skills because every candidate can claim them. A recruiter cannot shortlist you because you say you are reliable. They need role relevant capability.
Use skills that match the job and can be supported by your experience.
For example, an office administrator might include:
Diary and inbox management
Customer service and reception support
Document preparation and records management
Invoice processing and purchase orders
Microsoft Office and SharePoint
Internal stakeholder coordination
Meeting coordination and minute taking
Data entry and CRM maintenance
A project coordinator might include:
Project scheduling
Risk and issue tracking
Stakeholder updates
Budget tracking
Vendor coordination
Reporting and documentation
Microsoft Project
Agile and waterfall project environments
The trick is not to list every skill you have. The trick is to list the skills the employer is actually trying to buy.
That is what hiring is, really. The employer has a problem, workload, gap, risk, or growth need. Your resume needs to make it clear that your background helps solve it.
Your work experience section is the strongest part of your resume. This is where hiring managers decide whether your background is real, relevant, and strong enough.
For each role, include:
Job title
Company name
Location
Employment dates
Brief company or role context if needed
Achievement focused bullet points
The biggest mistake is writing job descriptions instead of evidence.
Weak Example
Responsible for customer service
Answered phone calls
Helped with admin tasks
Worked with team members
Used Microsoft Office
This tells me what the person was around, but not what they handled, improved, managed, delivered, or achieved.
Good Example
Managed 40 to 60 customer enquiries per day across phone and email, resolving account, booking, and service issues with a focus on first contact resolution
Coordinated daily administrative support for a team of 12, including calendar management, document preparation, supplier communication, and internal reporting
Improved the customer follow up process by creating email templates and tracking sheets, reducing missed responses during peak periods
Maintained accurate records in the CRM and supported monthly reporting for management review
The good version gives scale, tools, tasks, outcomes, and context. It helps the recruiter picture the candidate doing the work.
A useful formula is:
Action plus context plus outcome
For example:
Coordinated weekly rostering for a 25 person team across multiple shifts, reducing last minute coverage gaps during peak service periods
Managed invoice processing and supplier follow up for a high volume accounts team, improving payment tracking and reducing overdue queries
Supported recruitment coordination for casual and permanent roles, including interview scheduling, reference checks, onboarding paperwork, and candidate communication
Notice these are not dramatic claims. They are practical. That matters. Hiring managers do not always need heroic achievements. Sometimes they just need evidence that you can handle the real workload without creating chaos. A very underrated professional skill, frankly.
The best Australian resume template depends slightly on where you are in your career. The structure stays similar, but the emphasis changes.
If you are early in your career, your resume should focus on education, placements, internships, casual work, volunteer roles, projects, and transferable skills.
Do not apologise for having limited experience. Position what you do have properly.
Include:
Education near the top
Internships or placements
Casual and part time work
University projects
Volunteer experience
Technical tools or coursework
Customer service, teamwork, reliability, and communication examples supported by evidence
For graduates, employers are not expecting ten years of experience. They are looking for potential, learning ability, professionalism, and signs that you understand workplace expectations.
A retail job can absolutely support a corporate application if you write it properly. Handling customers, solving problems, managing pressure, following procedures, and turning up reliably are not small things. Many candidates undersell this because they think only office experience counts.
A mid career resume should focus on role progression, achievements, technical capability, stakeholder management, and industry relevance.
This is where vague resumes start becoming a bigger problem. If you have seven or ten years of experience, employers expect clearer evidence of impact. You do not need to sound senior if you are not, but you do need to show what you have built, managed, improved, solved, or owned.
Include:
Strong professional summary
Targeted key skills
Clear work history
Achievements under each role
Relevant systems and tools
Promotions or expanded responsibilities
Measurable outcomes where possible
At this level, hiring managers often compare candidates who look similar on paper. The difference is usually specificity. One candidate says they “managed stakeholders”. Another says they “managed weekly reporting and issue resolution across finance, operations, and external vendors during a national system rollout”. Guess which one feels more real?
A senior resume should show leadership, commercial impact, strategic ownership, transformation, risk management, people leadership, and decision making.
Senior candidates often make the mistake of listing too much detail from too far back. The higher you go, the more your resume should focus on scope, complexity, leadership, and outcomes.
Include:
Executive summary
Leadership strengths
Career highlights
Board, executive, or stakeholder exposure
Financial, operational, or strategic impact
Transformation, growth, governance, or change initiatives
Team size, budgets, regions, portfolios, or business units
At senior level, hiring managers are not just asking whether you can perform tasks. They are asking whether you can make decisions, influence people, manage risk, and improve business outcomes. Your resume should reflect that level of judgement.
Applicant tracking systems are common in Australian recruitment, especially for larger employers, government roles, universities, health organisations, banks, corporates, and high volume recruitment teams.
An ATS friendly resume does not mean ugly. It means readable by both software and humans.
Use:
Clear section headings
Standard fonts
Simple formatting
Reverse chronological order
Keywords from the job ad used naturally
Plain bullet points
Standard job titles where possible
Word or PDF format depending on application instructions
Avoid:
Text boxes
Heavy graphics
Icons replacing words
Photos
Tables that break formatting
Important information in headers or footers
Overdesigned templates from graphic design platforms
Skill bars or rating charts
Skill bars are one of my quiet resume enemies. Saying you are “80 percent skilled” in Excel means nothing. Eighty percent according to whom? Your cousin? A dream? A tragic little progress bar? Just state what you can actually do: pivot tables, VLOOKUP, Power Query, dashboards, reporting, data cleansing, or whatever is true.
ATS systems matter, but do not write only for the ATS. A human still makes the hiring decision. The best resume serves both.
A strong resume is not only about what you include. It is also about what you leave out.
Do not include:
Photo
Date of birth
Marital status
Religion
Nationality unless legally relevant to the application
Full home address
Personal identification numbers
Unrelated hobbies
Salary expectations unless asked
Reasons for leaving every job
Long references list
Generic objective statement
Outdated school details if you have stronger recent experience
The objective statement is especially outdated for most candidates. “Seeking a challenging role where I can grow” focuses on what you want. Employers are more interested in what you can do for the role. You can still show motivation, but do it through fit, direction, and relevance.
Also be careful with hobbies. They can help in some cases, especially for early career candidates or roles where personality fit matters, but they should not take space from stronger evidence. “Reading, travelling and spending time with family” rarely changes a hiring decision.
Tailoring your resume does not mean rewriting the whole thing every time. It means adjusting the emphasis so the most relevant information is easiest to find.
Before applying, compare your resume against the job ad and ask:
What are the main responsibilities?
What skills are repeated or emphasised?
What systems, tools, or qualifications are required?
What industry experience seems useful?
What problems is this role likely hired to solve?
What evidence do I have that matches those needs?
Then update:
Professional title
Summary
Key skills
First few bullet points under relevant roles
Technical skills
Project examples
Keywords used naturally
This is where a lot of candidates get tailoring wrong. They copy the job ad into their resume and think that is enough. It is not. Recruiters can usually spot keyword stuffing quickly because the language sounds borrowed and unsupported.
If the job ad says “stakeholder management”, do not just add “stakeholder management” to your skills list. Show it in your experience.
Weak Example
Good Example
The good version proves the skill. The weak version announces it.
Keep your formatting clean and practical. You want the reader to notice your experience, not wrestle with your design choices.
Use:
Two to four pages for most experienced professionals
One to two pages for graduates or early career candidates
Clear headings
Consistent spacing
Professional font
Reverse chronological work history
Bullet points under each role
Strong verbs and plain language
File name with your name and target role
A good file name looks like:
Simar Malhi Resume Talent Acquisition Specialist
A poor file name looks like:
Final resume new updated latest version 7
Recruiters see more of those than you would believe. It is a small detail, but small details affect how organised you appear.
Keep the design simple. A clean resume with strong content will beat a beautiful resume with vague content almost every time. The only exception is when design skill is part of the job, and even then, clarity still matters.
Below is a simplified example layout showing how the template comes together.
Amelia Roberts
Phone: 04XX XXX XXX
Email: amelia.roberts@email.com
Location: Melbourne, VIC
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ameliaroberts
Office Administrator
Professional Summary
Office administrator with six years of experience supporting operations, finance, and customer service teams across professional services and health environments. Skilled in diary management, document control, invoicing, CRM maintenance, supplier coordination, and internal reporting. Known for improving administrative processes, managing competing priorities, and keeping teams organised during busy periods.
Key Skills
Office administration
Diary and inbox management
Customer service support
Invoice processing
Supplier coordination
Document control
CRM and database management
Microsoft Office and SharePoint
Work Experience
Office Administrator
Brightline Health Services, Melbourne, VIC
March 2021 to Present
Provide administrative support to a team of 18 across operations, finance, and client service functions
Manage calendars, meeting coordination, supplier communication, document preparation, and internal reporting
Process invoices, purchase orders, and expense documentation while maintaining accurate finance records
Improved the document tracking process by introducing a shared register, reducing missed follow ups during audit preparation
Support customer enquiries by phone and email, resolving routine issues and escalating complex matters to the correct team
Administration Assistant
Northside Professional Group, Melbourne, VIC
January 2018 to February 2021
Supported daily office operations including reception, data entry, filing, client communication, and appointment scheduling
Maintained client records in the CRM and assisted with monthly reporting for management
Coordinated meeting rooms, travel bookings, catering, and internal team events
Assisted the finance team with invoice matching, supplier follow up, and payment documentation
Recognised by management for reliability during peak workload periods and staff absences
Education
Certificate IV in Business Administration
Melbourne Polytechnic
Completed 2017
Technical Skills
Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint
SharePoint
Salesforce
Xero
Google Workspace
Referees
Available upon request.
This example works because it is specific without being overcomplicated. It gives the recruiter enough detail to understand the candidate’s environment, workload, tools, and value. It also avoids the usual filler that makes resumes sound busy but empty.
The template is only the skeleton. The quality comes from how you use it.
The most common mistakes I see are:
Choosing a design that looks nice but is hard to read
Using a generic summary that says nothing specific
Listing duties without outcomes or scale
Using the same resume for every job
Hiding relevant experience too low on the page
Including too much old or irrelevant detail
Using keywords without evidence
Making the resume too personal
Writing in vague corporate language
Forgetting to update dates, job titles, or contact details
The hidden issue behind most weak resumes is not poor writing. It is unclear positioning.
Candidates often write from their own memory of the job. Recruiters read from the employer’s hiring criteria. Those are not the same thing.
You may remember that your role was busy, complex, stressful, and valuable. The recruiter cannot see that unless you translate it into evidence. Scale, responsibility, tools, stakeholders, outcomes, and business context help the reader understand the weight of your experience.
Job ads often use vague language. Your resume needs to decode it and respond with evidence.
When employers say strong communication skills, they usually mean they need someone who can deal with people clearly, professionally, and without creating confusion.
Show evidence such as:
Customer enquiries handled
Stakeholders managed
Reports written
Meetings coordinated
Complaints resolved
Presentations delivered
Cross functional communication
When employers say fast paced environment, they usually mean competing priorities, interruptions, deadlines, and not enough time for perfect conditions.
Show evidence such as:
High volume workload
Multiple deadlines
Peak periods
Rostering challenges
Urgent requests
Service level expectations
Process improvements under pressure
When employers say attention to detail, they usually mean they are worried about errors, compliance, customer impact, financial mistakes, or rework.
Show evidence such as:
Accurate records
Audit support
Quality checks
Data validation
Compliance documentation
Reduced errors
Improved tracking
This is how you make a resume more strategic. You stop responding to job ads literally and start responding to the business concern underneath the language.
Before sending your resume, check it like a recruiter would.
Ask yourself:
Can the reader understand my target role within five seconds?
Is my most relevant experience easy to find?
Does my summary say something specific?
Are my key skills matched to the job?
Do my bullet points show evidence, not just duties?
Have I included tools, systems, industries, stakeholders, and outcomes where relevant?
Is the formatting clean and ATS friendly?
Have I removed unnecessary personal details?
Is the file name professional?
Would this resume make sense to someone who does not know me?
That last question matters more than people think. Your resume is being read by someone who was not there. They do not know how hard you worked, how much you handled, or how valuable you were unless you show them.
A strong Australian resume template gives you the structure. Strong positioning gives you the advantage.
Written by Simar Malhi, a recruiter and headhunter with international recruitment experience. I write about CVs, job applications, hiring decisions, and the reality behind recruitment processes. My goal is to help candidates understand more honestly how employers, recruiters, and hiring managers actually select candidates.
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