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Create ResumeA strong graduate program resume in Australia needs to prove three things quickly: you meet the basic eligibility requirements, you understand the role or industry enough to position yourself properly, and you have evidence of potential through study, work, internships, volunteering, leadership, projects, or extracurricular involvement. Graduate recruiters are not expecting ten years of experience. They are looking for judgement, communication, motivation, learning ability, commercial awareness, and signs that you can handle structured training, feedback, deadlines, and real workplace expectations. The biggest mistake I see graduates make is treating the resume like a list of everything they have ever done, instead of a targeted document that helps a recruiter say, “Yes, this person makes sense for our program.”
A graduate program resume is not the same as a normal entry level resume. That is where many candidates go wrong.
A standard entry level resume usually tries to show that you can do a specific job now. A graduate program resume needs to show that you are a strong investment. Employers are hiring for potential, not a finished product. That means your resume must make your potential easy to assess.
When I screen graduate applications, I am usually looking for patterns. I want to see whether the candidate has made sensible choices, taken responsibility somewhere, communicated clearly, solved problems, worked with others, and shown enough interest in the field to justify the application.
Graduate recruiters are often handling very high application volumes. That does not mean they are careless. It means your resume has to make the right information obvious. If your best evidence is buried, vague, or wrapped in academic filler, it can be missed.
A strong Australian graduate program resume should answer these questions quickly:
Are you eligible for the program?
What degree are you studying or have you completed?
Are your graduation dates clear?
Do you have relevant coursework, projects, internships, placements, work experience, volunteering, or leadership activity?
Most people searching for this topic are not asking, “What is a resume?” They are asking, “How do I make my resume good enough to get shortlisted for a competitive Australian graduate program?”
That is a different problem.
You are not only competing against people with similar degrees. You are competing against applicants who have internships, leadership roles, high marks, polished applications, strong extracurriculars, and sometimes professional resume help. You may also be applying into programs where the employer screens thousands of candidates for a limited number of places.
So the practical goal is not to create a pretty resume. The goal is to build a resume that survives three levels of judgement:
ATS screening: Can the system read your resume and match it to relevant keywords, eligibility requirements, qualifications, skills, and experience?
Recruiter screening: Can a graduate recruiter understand your fit within seconds and see enough evidence to progress you?
Assessment stage support: Does your resume support the story you will later tell in interviews, assessment centres, and behavioural questions?
This is why generic advice like “use action verbs” or “keep it to one page” is only half useful. Yes, clarity matters. Yes, formatting matters. But what really gets candidates shortlisted is alignment. Your resume must make sense for the graduate program you are applying to.
Have you shown communication, teamwork, problem solving, initiative, resilience, and learning ability?
Do you understand what this program is actually looking for?
Is your resume easy for an applicant tracking system and a human recruiter to read?
That last part matters. A resume is not just a document. In graduate hiring, it is a screening tool, a ranking tool, and often the first piece of evidence used to decide whether you move to testing, video interview, assessment centre, or hiring manager review.
Graduate hiring in Australia is usually structured, but it is not as mechanical as candidates think. Recruiters are rarely sitting there looking for one perfect profile. They are trying to identify candidates who have enough evidence to justify progression.
Here is what tends to matter.
Before anyone gets impressed by your leadership role or group project, they need to know whether you meet the program requirements.
That often includes:
Australian citizenship, permanent residency, or working rights where required
Degree discipline requirements
Graduation year or expected completion date
Minimum academic results if stated
Location availability
Ability to work full time by the program start date
Specific checks for government, defence, banking, consulting, healthcare, engineering, or regulated industries
Do not make recruiters hunt for this. If a graduate program says applicants must have completed their degree within the last two years, make your graduation date clear. If the program requires working rights, include them if relevant and appropriate.
A common mistake is hiding eligibility details at the bottom or leaving dates vague because the candidate thinks it looks cleaner. It does not. It creates uncertainty. And in recruitment, uncertainty rarely helps the candidate.
Your degree is important, but your degree alone usually will not carry the application.
Hiring teams look at your education to understand your foundation. They may consider your major, university, academic results, honours, relevant coursework, technical subjects, capstone projects, thesis work, or professional accreditation requirements.
But I want to be blunt here: many graduates over rely on their degree because they assume the qualification itself proves employability. It does not. It proves you studied something. The resume still needs to show how you think, communicate, apply knowledge, organise work, and contribute in a real environment.
For competitive graduate programs, your education section should do more than state the degree name. It should show relevance.
Weak Example
Bachelor of Commerce
University of Melbourne
2025
This is not wrong, but it gives the recruiter very little.
Good Example
Bachelor of Commerce, Major in Finance and Business Analytics
University of Melbourne, Melbourne VIC
Expected completion: November 2025
Relevant study: Corporate Finance, Data Analytics for Business, Financial Modelling, Business Strategy
Capstone project: Analysed ASX listed retail performance using financial ratios and market data to present investment recommendations to a panel of academic assessors.
The second version gives the recruiter more to work with. It connects the degree to the type of thinking the candidate may use in a graduate role.
One of the biggest misconceptions graduates have is that only internships count.
Internships help, absolutely. But in Australian graduate recruitment, part time work, retail, hospitality, tutoring, customer service, administration, volunteering, university leadership, and community involvement can all be valuable if written properly.
The problem is not that candidates lack experience. The problem is that they describe experience in a way that sounds passive.
Weak Example
Worked at a cafe serving customers and handling payments.
This tells me the task, not the value.
Good Example
Served up to 120 customers per shift in a fast paced cafe environment while managing POS transactions, resolving order issues, and coordinating with kitchen staff during peak periods.
Now I can see pace, communication, accuracy, pressure, teamwork, and customer judgement. That matters.
Graduate recruiters are often looking for transferable evidence. A retail job can show resilience. Tutoring can show communication. Sport leadership can show discipline. Volunteering can show initiative. A university society role can show stakeholder coordination. But you need to translate the experience into hiring language without making it sound inflated.
Do not pretend your casual job was a corporate strategy role. Just show the real capability behind it.
Most graduate resumes are full of claims.
“I am a motivated team player with excellent communication skills.”
Lovely. So is apparently every other graduate in Australia.
Recruiters do not reject this because communication skills are unimportant. They reject it because it is unsupported. Anyone can claim soft skills. Strong candidates show evidence.
Instead of saying:
Weak Example
Excellent communication and teamwork skills.
Write something like:
Good Example
Collaborated with a team of five students to deliver a market entry presentation, coordinating research, slide development, and final recommendations under a three week deadline.
That is still not perfect, but it gives the recruiter something observable. It shows context, action, and outcome.
Graduate resumes need proof points. Not huge achievements. Not fake executive language. Just concrete examples that show how you operate.
There is no single perfect resume format, but there is a structure that works well for most graduate program applications in Australia.
For most candidates, I recommend this order:
Name and contact details
Professional summary or profile
Education
Key skills
Relevant experience
Additional work experience
Projects, placements, or extracurricular leadership
Certifications, technical skills, or languages
Awards or achievements if relevant
Referees available on request, only if needed
The order can shift depending on your strongest evidence. If you have strong internships, place experience higher. If you have limited work history but strong academic projects, bring projects forward. If you are applying for a technical graduate program, technical skills and projects may need more visibility.
The real rule is this: put your strongest and most relevant evidence where it can be seen early.
Keep this simple.
Include:
Full name
Mobile number
Professional email address
City and state
LinkedIn URL if it is polished and aligned
Portfolio, GitHub, website, or design portfolio if relevant
Do not include your full street address. Do not include a photo unless explicitly requested, which is uncommon in Australia. Do not include date of birth, marital status, religion, or personal details that are irrelevant to the role.
For graduate resumes, the summary should be short and specific. This is not the place for generic personality claims.
A good graduate summary should mention:
Your degree or field
The type of graduate program you are targeting
Relevant strengths backed by evidence
Industry or role alignment
Weak Example
Hardworking graduate seeking an opportunity to grow and develop my skills in a dynamic organisation.
This says almost nothing. It could be pasted into any resume for any role.
Good Example
Commerce graduate with a major in Business Analytics and hands on experience in customer service, data interpretation, and university consulting projects. Strong interest in financial services graduate programs, with demonstrated ability to analyse information, communicate findings clearly, and work under competing deadlines.
This is more useful because it positions the candidate.
For graduate programs, education usually needs to sit near the top.
Include:
Degree name
University name
Location
Expected or completed graduation date
Major, minor, or specialisation
WAM or GPA if strong or requested
Relevant coursework if it supports the program
Capstone, thesis, placement, or project details if relevant
Be careful with academic results. If a program asks for WAM or GPA, include it honestly. If your result is strong, use it. If it is not strong and not requested, you may choose to focus on projects, practical experience, and other strengths.
Do not try to hide required academic information. If the employer asks for transcripts, they will see it anyway. Better to build a realistic story around your strengths than rely on strategic fog.
A skills section can help ATS matching, but it should not become a dumping ground.
For graduate resumes, useful skills may include:
Data analysis
Excel
Power BI
Python
SQL
Research
Report writing
Stakeholder communication
Customer service
Presentation delivery
The skills must match the program. A marketing graduate resume should not look identical to an engineering graduate resume. A public sector graduate resume should not use the same emphasis as a consulting resume.
This is where many candidates accidentally expose that they are mass applying. The skills section becomes a random mix of buzzwords rather than a targeted signal.
Use reverse chronological order for experience, but separate relevant experience from additional experience if needed.
For each role, include:
Job title
Employer
Location
Dates
Three to five targeted bullet points
Each bullet should show context, action, and result where possible.
A simple structure is:
What you did
Who or what it affected
How you did it
What changed, improved, continued, or was delivered
Not every bullet needs a number. Numbers help when they are real and meaningful, but forced metrics can sound ridiculous. “Improved customer satisfaction by 100%” in a casual retail role is the kind of thing that makes recruiters quietly stare at the screen.
Use numbers where they clarify scale:
Customer volume
Team size
Budget size
Project duration
Accuracy
Timeframes
Sales volume
Number of stakeholders
Event attendance
Research sample size
Below is a realistic Australian graduate program resume example. This is not meant to be copied word for word. It shows the level of specificity, structure, and evidence that works better than vague graduate language.
Aisha Nguyen
Melbourne VIC
0412 345 678
linkedin.com/in/aishanguyen
Professional Summary
Commerce graduate with a major in Finance and Business Analytics, seeking a graduate program in financial services, consulting, or corporate strategy. Brings experience across customer service, university consulting projects, financial analysis coursework, and student leadership. Confident working with data, preparing clear recommendations, and communicating with customers, peers, and stakeholders in deadline driven environments.
Education
Bachelor of Commerce, Major in Finance and Business Analytics
Monash University, Melbourne VIC
Expected completion: November 2025
WAM: 78
Relevant coursework: Corporate Finance, Business Analytics, Financial Modelling, Strategic Management, Econometrics
Capstone project: Developed a market expansion recommendation for an Australian retail brand using competitor research, customer segmentation, financial assumptions, and risk analysis. Presented findings to academic assessors and industry guests.
Key Skills
Financial analysis and business research
Excel, Power BI, basic SQL, and data visualisation
Report writing and presentation delivery
Customer service and stakeholder communication
Team coordination and deadline management
Problem solving in fast paced environments
Relevant Experience
Finance Intern
BrightPath Advisory, Melbourne VIC
January 2025 to March 2025
Supported financial analysts with data preparation, spreadsheet checks, and client research for small business advisory projects.
Reviewed client expense data in Excel to identify inconsistencies, missing information, and category errors before analyst review.
Assisted in preparing presentation slides summarising revenue trends, cost pressures, and basic cash flow observations for client meetings.
Attended weekly team meetings and took action notes, helping track outstanding information requests and internal deadlines.
University Consulting Project Team Member
Monash Business School, Melbourne VIC
August 2024 to October 2024
Worked in a team of five to develop a market entry recommendation for a consumer goods client brief.
Conducted competitor research across Australian and New Zealand markets, identifying pricing patterns, product positioning, and distribution risks.
Built simple financial assumptions to compare three launch options and explain expected costs, risks, and revenue potential.
Presented final recommendations to academic assessors, receiving high distinction feedback for commercial logic and clarity of communication.
Additional Work Experience
Customer Service Team Member
Woolworths, Glen Waverley VIC
February 2022 to Present
Serve customers in a high volume retail environment, balancing speed, accuracy, and calm communication during peak trading periods.
Handle POS transactions, product queries, refund requests, and customer issues while following store procedures.
Train new casual team members on checkout processes, customer interaction standards, and escalation steps.
Coordinate with supervisors and floor staff to manage stock availability questions and resolve customer concerns efficiently.
Leadership and Extracurricular Experience
Treasurer
Monash Commerce Society, Melbourne VIC
March 2024 to November 2024
Managed budgeting and expense tracking for student events, working with the executive committee to allocate funds across sponsorship, catering, marketing, and venue costs.
Prepared simple financial updates for committee meetings to support planning and decision making.
Liaised with vendors and university contacts to confirm event costs, payment timelines, and documentation requirements.
Certifications and Technical Skills
Microsoft Excel: pivot tables, lookups, charts, and basic financial modelling
Power BI: dashboard creation and data visualisation fundamentals
SQL: basic querying and data extraction
Responsible Service of Alcohol, Victoria
Awards and Achievements
Dean’s Commendation List, 2024
High distinction result in Strategic Management capstone project
Referees
Available on request.
The biggest difference between an average graduate resume and a strong one is tailoring. Not decoration. Not a fancier template. Tailoring.
Graduate employers are not all assessing the same thing. A Big Four consulting graduate program, a government policy graduate program, an engineering graduate program, a bank graduate program, and a technology graduate program may all value “communication” and “problem solving”, but they interpret those qualities differently.
Consulting recruiters tend to look for structured thinking, commercial awareness, client readiness, analytical ability, communication, and evidence that you can work under pressure.
Your resume should highlight:
Case competitions
Consulting projects
Research and analysis
Presentations
Client facing experience
Leadership roles
Strong academic performance
Problem solving examples
Do not overuse phrases like “strategic thinker” unless your bullet points prove it. Consulting recruiters see that phrase constantly. They respond better to evidence of how you structured a problem, compared options, formed recommendations, and communicated trade offs.
Finance graduate programs usually look for numerical confidence, attention to detail, risk awareness, commercial interest, and motivation for the sector.
Your resume should highlight:
Finance subjects
Financial modelling
Excel skills
Investment society involvement
Internships
Customer or sales experience if relevant
Research into markets, companies, or products
Accuracy and process discipline
A common mistake is writing “passionate about finance” without showing any behaviour that proves it. If you are genuinely interested, show what you have done with that interest. Have you completed finance projects, followed markets, joined societies, built models, completed online learning, or worked in a customer environment where financial products or commercial decisions were relevant?
Government graduate programs often value policy thinking, written communication, ethics, stakeholder awareness, public impact, research ability, and judgement.
Your resume should highlight:
Policy research
Report writing
Community involvement
Volunteering
Public sector internships
Academic research
Stakeholder engagement
Analytical writing
Do not make your resume sound like a private sector sales pitch if you are applying to government. Public sector hiring often responds better to clarity, evidence, service orientation, and balanced judgement.
Engineering graduate employers look for technical foundation, safety awareness, project experience, site exposure, problem solving, teamwork, and practical application.
Your resume should highlight:
Engineering projects
Design work
Technical software
Internships or placements
Site visits
Laboratory work
Safety training
Team based project delivery
Relevant standards or industry exposure
Engineering resumes often fail when candidates list software but do not show how they used it. “AutoCAD” in a skills list is weaker than a bullet explaining what you designed, modelled, checked, or contributed to.
Technology graduate programs are usually looking for technical capability, learning agility, project work, collaboration, problem solving, and evidence you can build or improve something.
Your resume should highlight:
Coding projects
GitHub or portfolio work
Hackathons
Internships
Systems thinking
Testing
Data projects
Agile teamwork
Cloud, cyber, AI, analytics, or software tools where relevant
Do not just list programming languages. Show projects. Show what you built, fixed, automated, analysed, tested, or improved. In technology hiring, evidence is far stronger than self description.
Most rejected graduate resumes are not terrible. They are unclear, generic, underdeveloped, or misaligned. That is more frustrating because the candidate often had enough potential but did not present it properly.
There is a difference between being early career and sounding unprepared.
A student style resume often says:
Completed assignments
Participated in group work
Learned communication skills
Helped team members
Gained exposure to business concepts
An emerging professional resume says:
Analysed customer trends using survey data to identify three priority segments for a marketing recommendation.
Coordinated weekly team deliverables, tracked progress, and helped resolve workload gaps before final submission.
Prepared a ten minute presentation summarising research findings, risks, and recommended actions.
The second version does not pretend the candidate is senior. It simply shows professional behaviour.
This is one of the fastest ways to weaken your results.
Graduate programs may look similar from the outside, but the screening criteria can be quite different. If your resume uses the same summary, same skills, and same bullet order for every program, you are making the recruiter do the matching work.
And honestly, recruiters do not have time to rescue unclear positioning.
Tailor your resume by adjusting:
The professional summary
The order of skills
The bullet points under experience
The projects you feature
The coursework you mention
The technical tools you highlight
The language used in the job advertisement
This does not mean rewriting everything from scratch. It means making the most relevant evidence easier to find.
Graduate resumes often contain too much language like:
Highly motivated
Passionate
Results driven
Dynamic
Detail oriented
Strong communicator
Fast learner
Team player
These words are not banned. They are just weak without evidence.
If you want to show you are detail oriented, mention a situation where accuracy mattered. If you want to show leadership, explain who you led, what you coordinated, and what was delivered. If you want to show learning agility, show a new tool, process, subject, or environment you picked up quickly.
Recruiters believe evidence. They skim claims.
A creative resume template can look impressive until an ATS struggles to read it or a recruiter cannot quickly find the essentials.
For most Australian graduate program applications, keep the design clean:
Simple headings
Consistent formatting
Standard fonts
Clear dates
No text boxes if possible
No icons that replace words
No heavy graphics
No skill bars
No photo unless specifically requested
Skill bars are a particular nuisance. What does “Excel 80%” mean? Who measured that? Your cousin? A recruiter cannot use that information. Use plain language instead.
Some candidates try to hide gaps, low marks, lack of internships, or unrelated experience by being vague. That usually makes the resume weaker.
If your marks are not strong, focus on practical projects, work ethic, leadership, customer experience, technical skills, and improvement. If you do not have internships, make your part time work and university projects stronger. If your degree is not perfectly aligned, explain transferable relevance through your summary and evidence.
A resume cannot magically remove every concern, but it can reduce doubt. The goal is not to look perfect. The goal is to look credible, relevant, and worth progressing.
Not having an internship does not automatically remove you from graduate program competition. It does mean you need to be more deliberate.
You can use:
Part time jobs
Casual work
University projects
Group assignments
Capstone projects
Volunteering
Student society roles
Sports leadership
Peer mentoring
Tutoring
Freelance work
Online projects
Certifications
Portfolio work
Community involvement
The key is to write these experiences through the lens of employability.
For example, a hospitality job can show:
Customer communication
Conflict handling
Speed and accuracy
Teamwork
Reliability
Prioritisation
Working under pressure
A student society role can show:
Event coordination
Budget tracking
Vendor communication
Stakeholder management
Sponsorship outreach
Marketing support
Team leadership
A university project can show:
Research
Analysis
Problem solving
Presentation skills
Written communication
Technical ability
Collaboration
Deadline management
Graduate employers do not expect every applicant to have a perfect corporate internship. But they do expect you to understand your own value. If you cannot explain what your experience proves, the recruiter is unlikely to do that work for you.
Applicant tracking systems are commonly used in graduate recruitment, especially by large employers, banks, consulting firms, government agencies, engineering companies, and major corporate programs.
The ATS does not hire you. But it can affect how your application is parsed, searched, filtered, and reviewed.
Use a clean resume format and include relevant keywords naturally.
Good ATS practice includes:
Use standard section headings such as Education, Experience, Skills, Projects, Certifications, and Leadership.
Match important terminology from the job advertisement where accurate.
Include degree name, major, graduation date, and location clearly.
Use both full terms and common abbreviations where useful, such as applicant tracking system and ATS.
Avoid placing essential information in headers, footers, images, icons, tables, or text boxes.
Save as PDF unless the employer requests Word format.
Keep dates consistent.
Avoid overly designed templates that prioritise appearance over readability.
Do not keyword stuff. Recruiters can see it, and it looks desperate. The goal is not to trick the system. The goal is to make your real relevance readable.
For most Australian graduate program applications, one to two pages is appropriate.
One page can work if you have limited experience and can present your strongest evidence clearly. Two pages can work if you have internships, projects, leadership roles, technical skills, volunteering, and part time work that genuinely support your application.
The issue is not length by itself. The issue is value per line.
A two page resume full of strong, relevant evidence is better than a cramped one page resume that hides useful information. A two page resume full of filler is worse than both.
Use this test: if a line does not help a recruiter understand your fit, evidence, eligibility, capability, or motivation, it probably does not deserve space.
Do not include:
Primary school details
Irrelevant personal hobbies unless they show leadership or achievement
Generic objective statements
Photos
Excessive personal information
References and referee contact details unless requested
Long paragraphs describing every subject studied
Repeated soft skill claims
Before submitting your graduate program resume, check it like a recruiter would.
Ask yourself:
Can a recruiter identify my degree, university, and graduation date within ten seconds?
Is my target program or career direction clear?
Have I shown evidence of communication, teamwork, problem solving, and initiative?
Have I tailored the resume to this program, not just graduate jobs in general?
Are my strongest examples near the top?
Have I included relevant coursework, projects, internships, placements, or technical skills?
Have I translated casual work into transferable workplace evidence?
Are my dates clear and consistent?
Is the formatting ATS friendly?
Are my bullet points specific enough to prove something?
Have I removed vague claims that do not add evidence?
Does the resume sound like a real person with potential, not a template pretending to be impressive?
That last question matters more than people think. Graduate employers are not looking for perfect corporate robots. They are looking for capable people who can learn, contribute, communicate, and grow. Your resume should make that believable.
A standout graduate resume is not necessarily the one with the fanciest internship or the highest marks. Those help, but they are not the whole story.
The strongest resumes usually have a clear pattern. The candidate has made it easy to understand who they are, what they are applying for, and why their background fits. Their bullet points are specific. Their education is relevant. Their experience is translated properly. Their resume feels intentional.
What stands out to me is not perfection. It is clarity.
I notice when a candidate has taken a part time job seriously and explained it well. I notice when a project bullet shows actual thinking instead of “worked in a team”. I notice when the resume is tailored to the program rather than sprayed across every employer in the country. I notice when the candidate understands that graduate recruitment is not just about being enthusiastic. It is about giving employers enough evidence to take the next step.
The uncomfortable truth is that many graduate resumes are rejected because they are too vague to defend. A recruiter cannot confidently progress every candidate who says they are hardworking. But a recruiter can progress a candidate who shows relevant study, clear motivation, practical experience, communication evidence, and a realistic understanding of the program.
Your resume does not need to make you look like a senior professional. It needs to make you look like a strong graduate hire.
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.
Financial modelling
Project coordination
Problem solving
Risk analysis
CRM systems
Laboratory techniques
CAD software
Case analysis
Policy research
Report length
Process improvements
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