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Create ResumeA strong graduate resume in Australia should show that you are employable, coachable, commercially aware, and ready to contribute, even if you do not have years of professional experience. The biggest mistake graduates make is treating the resume like a university record instead of a hiring document. Recruiters are not looking for perfection. They are looking for evidence that you can learn quickly, communicate clearly, handle responsibility, and bring relevant skills into a real workplace. Your degree matters, but it rarely carries the whole resume. What gets noticed is the way you position your internships, casual work, projects, volunteering, achievements, technical skills, and motivation for the role.
When I review graduate resumes, I am not expecting a senior professional profile. That would be unrealistic. What I am looking for is much more practical.
I want to understand three things quickly:
Can this person do the basic work required in the role?
Have they shown responsibility, reliability, or initiative somewhere?
Can I confidently put them in front of a hiring manager without having to explain away a messy resume?
That last point matters more than many graduates realise. A recruiter is not just reading your resume for themselves. They are reading it while thinking, “Can I send this to the hiring manager and will it make sense?”
A graduate resume in Australia needs to bridge the gap between study and employment. It should translate your academic background, part time jobs, internships, university projects, placements, extracurriculars, and transferable skills into evidence of workplace potential.
Employers are usually not hiring graduates because they already know everything. They are hiring them because they show enough capability, judgement, communication skills, and attitude to be developed. Your resume needs to make that case clearly.
The frustrating part is that many graduates do have useful experience, but they hide it under weak wording. They write things like “worked in a team environment” or “completed university assignments” and expect the employer to connect the dots. Employers are busy. They will not do detective work for you.
For most Australian graduate resumes, the best format is a clean reverse chronological resume with education placed near the top, followed by relevant experience, projects, skills, achievements, and additional experience.
The structure should usually look like this:
Name and contact details
Professional summary
Education
Relevant experience
Projects, placements, or internships
Skills
Achievements, leadership, or volunteering
A good graduate resume does not exaggerate. It explains relevance.
Additional work experience
Certifications or professional development
This structure works because it reflects how recruiters actually scan graduate resumes. We usually start with the basics: degree, graduation date, university, relevant exposure, and whether the candidate has any real work pattern.
A common mistake is putting skills at the very top and burying education or experience halfway down the page. Skills are useful, but without context they can feel like claims. “Communication skills” means very little until I see where you used them.
For Australian graduate roles, one to two pages is usually appropriate. One page is fine if you are a recent graduate with limited experience. Two pages is acceptable if you have internships, placements, strong projects, leadership experience, technical skills, or relevant employment.
Do not force everything into one page if it makes the resume cramped and unreadable. A clean two page graduate resume is better than a one page resume that looks like someone tried to fit their entire life into a boarding pass.
Your graduate resume should include evidence that supports the type of role you are applying for. The goal is not to include everything you have ever done. The goal is to include what helps an employer understand your fit.
Keep this simple. Include your full name, mobile number, professional email address, city and state, and LinkedIn profile if it is complete and aligned with your resume.
You do not need to include your full home address, date of birth, marital status, photo, nationality, or visa details unless they are relevant and appropriate. In Australia, a suburb or city is usually enough.
If you are an international graduate, you may include your work rights clearly if it supports your application. For example, “Full Australian working rights” or “Temporary Graduate visa with full time work rights.” Do not make the recruiter guess. Work rights confusion can slow down your application quickly.
Your professional summary should be short, specific, and grounded. This is not where you describe yourself as passionate, hardworking, enthusiastic, and motivated in four different ways. I see that constantly, and it tells me very little.
A good graduate summary should mention your degree, target area, relevant experience or strengths, and the type of value you bring.
Weak Example
Recent graduate seeking an opportunity to grow my career. I am hardworking, passionate, motivated, and eager to learn in a professional environment.
Why this fails: It sounds nice, but it could belong to almost any graduate applying for almost any job. There is no direction, evidence, or positioning.
Good Example
Commerce graduate with internship experience in financial analysis, reporting, and stakeholder support. Confident using Excel, Power BI, and financial data to identify trends, prepare summaries, and support business decision making. Seeking a graduate analyst role where I can apply commercial thinking, strong attention to detail, and a practical understanding of reporting workflows.
Why this works: It gives the recruiter a clear picture of the candidate’s direction, tools, experience, and relevance.
For a graduate resume in Australia, education usually belongs near the top. Include your degree, university, location, graduation year, major, and relevant academic achievements if they strengthen your application.
You can include:
Degree title
University name
Graduation year or expected completion date
Major or specialisation
Relevant coursework
Academic awards
Distinction average, high distinction average, or strong WAM if relevant
Exchange programs or capstone projects
Do not list every subject you completed. Select subjects that support the role. If you are applying for accounting roles, taxation, auditing, corporate finance, financial accounting, and business analytics may be useful. If you are applying for marketing roles, consumer behaviour, digital marketing, market research, branding, and analytics may matter more.
This is where many graduates lose focus. They treat education like a transcript summary. Employers are not trying to mark your degree. They are trying to understand whether your studies connect to the role.
Relevant experience can include internships, placements, vacation programs, part time work, casual jobs, volunteering, student society roles, freelance work, university consulting projects, and industry projects.
Graduates often underestimate casual work. Retail, hospitality, tutoring, administration, customer service, and call centre experience can be valuable if written properly. These roles show reliability, communication, problem solving, customer handling, time management, and commercial awareness.
The mistake is writing duties only.
Weak Example
Worked at the front counter, served customers, handled payments, and helped team members.
Good Example
Managed high volume customer enquiries in a fast paced retail environment, balancing service quality, transaction accuracy, and stock presentation during peak trading periods.
The second version sounds stronger because it explains the work in a way that connects to workplace capability. It does not pretend the job was something it was not. It simply frames the experience properly.
If you do not have much work experience, projects can do serious heavy lifting. But they need to be written like evidence, not like assignment descriptions.
A useful project entry should include:
The problem or objective
Your role
Tools, methods, or research used
Outcome or recommendation
Skills demonstrated
For technical, engineering, finance, data, marketing, design, public health, psychology, law, business, and IT graduates, projects can be one of the strongest parts of the resume.
The key is to make them practical. Hiring managers are not deeply moved by “completed a group assignment.” They want to know what you analysed, built, tested, recommended, improved, presented, or solved.
Your skills section should be targeted to the role. Avoid dumping every soft skill you can think of into one long list.
Good graduate resume skills may include:
Microsoft Excel
Power BI
SQL
Python
Xero
MYOB
Salesforce
Canva
Adobe Creative Cloud
Google Analytics
The best skills are either role relevant, tool based, or clearly supported elsewhere in the resume. If you list “leadership,” I should see leadership somewhere. If you list “data analysis,” I should see a project, internship, or coursework where you used data.
A resume is not a wish list. It is an evidence document.
Graduate resume bullet points should focus on actions, tools, context, and outcomes. You do not need to have massive achievements. You do need to show that you understand what mattered in the work.
A strong bullet point usually includes:
What you did
Who or what it supported
How you did it
Why it mattered
Weak Example
Helped with reports.
Good Example
Prepared weekly sales and performance summaries in Excel to support team leaders with stock planning, customer trends, and daily operational decisions.
Weak Example
Worked on a university marketing project.
Good Example
Developed a digital marketing strategy for a local hospitality business, using customer research, competitor analysis, and campaign planning to recommend practical improvements across social media and email engagement.
Weak Example
Responsible for customer service.
Good Example
Handled customer enquiries, complaints, and payment issues in a high volume environment while maintaining service standards and escalating complex matters appropriately.
The reason these stronger examples work is not because they sound fancy. They show workplace thinking. They make it easier for a recruiter to imagine the candidate doing real work.
Many graduates write bullet points that describe tasks, but hiring decisions are based on evidence of capability. The better question is not “What did I do?” The better question is “What does this prove about me as a candidate?”
Below is a realistic graduate resume example for an Australian candidate applying for business, analyst, operations, or commercial graduate roles. The structure can be adapted for other industries, but the positioning logic is the important part.
Aisha Patel
Melbourne, VIC | 04XX XXX XXX | aisha.patel@email.com | linkedin.com/in/aishapatel
Professional Summary
Commerce graduate with practical experience across business analysis, customer operations, reporting, and stakeholder support. Skilled in Excel, Power BI, research, and data interpretation, with experience preparing reports, analysing trends, and presenting recommendations through university projects and internship work. Strong communicator with a reliable work history in customer facing environments and a clear interest in graduate roles across business operations, consulting, and commercial analysis.
Education
Bachelor of Commerce, University of Melbourne, Melbourne VIC
Completed 2025
Major: Management and Marketing
Relevant coursework: Business Analytics, Market Research, Strategic Management, Consumer Behaviour, Financial Management
Academic achievement: Distinction average
Relevant Experience
Business Operations Intern, Brightline Advisory, Melbourne VIC
February 2025 to May 2025
Supported consultants with market research, competitor analysis, and client briefing documents across retail and professional services projects
Prepared Excel based summaries of customer feedback, sales trends, and operational data to identify recurring issues and improvement opportunities
Assisted with PowerPoint presentations for client meetings, translating research findings into clear recommendations and visual summaries
Coordinated meeting notes, action items, and follow up tasks to support project timelines and internal communication
Built confidence working with senior stakeholders, confidential information, and deadline driven project requirements
Customer Service Team Member, Woolworths, Melbourne VIC
March 2022 to Present
Manage customer enquiries, product issues, payment concerns, and service requests in a high volume retail environment
Support stock presentation, checkout operations, and team coordination during peak trading periods
Train new casual team members on customer service standards, point of sale processes, and store procedures
Resolve routine customer issues independently and escalate complex matters to supervisors when needed
Maintain reliability across rotating shifts while balancing part time work with full time university study
University Projects
Market Entry Strategy Project, University of Melbourne
March 2025 to June 2025
Analysed the Australian meal kit delivery market using competitor research, customer segmentation, pricing comparison, and SWOT analysis
Developed recommendations for customer acquisition, retention, and brand positioning based on market trends and consumer behaviour research
Presented findings to a panel of academic assessors and industry guests, receiving strong feedback for commercial practicality and clarity of recommendations
Business Analytics Project, University of Melbourne
August 2024 to November 2024
Used Excel and Power BI to analyse customer transaction data and identify patterns in repeat purchases, average order value, and seasonal demand
Created dashboard visuals to summarise key findings and support data driven recommendations
Worked in a group of four, taking responsibility for data cleaning, chart creation, and final presentation structure
Skills
Technical Skills: Excel, Power BI, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Google Workspace, basic SQL, Canva
Business Skills: Market research, competitor analysis, reporting, data interpretation, stakeholder communication, presentation preparation
Transferable Skills: Customer service, teamwork, time management, problem solving, written communication, attention to detail
Leadership And Volunteering
Events Coordinator, Commerce Students Society, Melbourne VIC
February 2024 to November 2024
Coordinated event logistics, supplier communication, room bookings, and promotional materials for student networking events
Liaised with student members, university staff, and external speakers to support event delivery
Helped increase attendance at professional development events through improved communication and social media promotion
Certifications
Google Analytics Certification
Completed 2025
Microsoft Excel Intermediate Short Course
Completed 2024
References
Available upon request
This resume works because it does not rely on vague potential. It gives the recruiter evidence.
The candidate has not tried to sound like a senior consultant or analyst. That would be a mistake. Instead, the resume shows that she has relevant exposure, understands business language, can work with data, has customer facing experience, and has handled responsibility consistently.
The internship section is specific without being inflated. The customer service experience is not dismissed as irrelevant. It is positioned as evidence of communication, reliability, pressure handling, and workplace maturity. That matters in graduate hiring because employers are often trying to assess whether the candidate can handle the basics of professional work.
The projects are also doing useful work. They show tools, commercial thinking, presentation skills, research, and problem solving. This is much stronger than simply listing “Market Entry Project” with no context.
A good graduate resume should help the hiring manager feel less risk. That is the part graduates often miss. Employers know they are hiring someone early in their career. Your job is to reduce uncertainty.
Most graduate resumes are not terrible because the candidate lacks ability. They are weak because the resume does not translate that ability into hiring language.
Academic achievement can help, especially for competitive graduate programs. But your resume should not read like a university application.
A hiring manager wants to know how your education connects to the job. They care less about every unit you completed and more about what your degree trained you to analyse, produce, communicate, or solve.
If your resume is mostly coursework, make the coursework relevant. If you completed projects, show the practical outcome. If you achieved a strong WAM, include it, but do not expect it to replace evidence of employability.
Phrases like “hardworking team player with excellent communication skills” are painfully common. They are also easy to ignore.
The problem is not that these qualities are bad. The problem is that everyone claims them. A recruiter cannot shortlist you based on qualities you have not proven.
Instead of saying you are a strong communicator, show that you presented research findings, handled customer complaints, trained team members, coordinated events, wrote reports, or supported stakeholders.
Some graduates leave off retail, hospitality, tutoring, and customer service jobs because they think these roles are not impressive enough.
That can be a mistake.
In Australian graduate hiring, consistent casual work can be a positive signal. It shows that you can hold a job, deal with people, turn up on time, manage pressure, and balance competing responsibilities. Many hiring managers quietly respect that.
The key is to write it properly. Do not over inflate it, but do not undersell it either.
A long skills list does not make you look more qualified. It can make you look less focused.
If you list ten tools and there is no evidence you used them, the recruiter may question whether you are keyword stuffing. Applicant tracking systems may pick up keywords, but humans still decide whether your resume makes sense.
Use skills that are relevant to the role and support them through experience, projects, or education.
This is one of the more subtle mistakes. Some graduates write like they were leading strategy, managing stakeholders, and driving transformation when they were actually assisting, researching, coordinating, or analysing.
There is nothing wrong with assisting. There is nothing wrong with being early career. Hiring managers do not expect you to have led a department at twenty two. They do expect honesty and self awareness.
Strong graduate resumes sound capable, not inflated.
Tailoring does not mean rewriting your entire resume for every job. It means adjusting the positioning so the most relevant evidence is easy to find.
Start by reading the job ad carefully and identifying what the employer is really asking for. Do not just look at the job title. Graduate roles can vary heavily even when the titles sound similar.
A graduate analyst role may focus on data, reporting, Excel, and stakeholder support. A marketing graduate role may focus on campaign coordination, research, content, analytics, and communication. A consulting graduate role may focus on problem solving, commercial thinking, presentations, teamwork, and client exposure.
Once you identify the real requirements, adjust:
Your summary
Your skills section
The order of your bullet points
The projects you highlight
The coursework you include
The language you use for relevant experience
This does not mean copying the job ad word for word. That usually reads awkwardly and obvious. It means using the employer’s language where it genuinely matches your background.
For example, if a job ad mentions “stakeholder engagement,” and you have coordinated with customers, university staff, external speakers, or internal teams, you can use that wording honestly.
If the job ad mentions “data analysis,” and you used Excel or Power BI in a university project, bring that closer to the top.
Tailoring is not manipulation. It is making relevance visible.
Applicant tracking systems are part of modern hiring, but they are not magical robots deciding your entire future. They usually help employers store, search, filter, and manage applications. Some systems rank or parse resumes, but the bigger issue is whether your resume is readable, searchable, and aligned with the role.
For graduate resumes in Australia, ATS friendly formatting matters because high volume roles can attract hundreds or thousands of applications.
Use a simple format with clear headings. Avoid text boxes, heavy graphics, photos, icons, columns that confuse parsing, and unusual fonts. A clean Word document or PDF is usually fine unless the employer specifies otherwise.
Use standard headings such as:
Professional Summary
Education
Experience
Projects
Skills
Certifications
Volunteering
Include relevant keywords naturally. If the role asks for Excel, customer service, stakeholder communication, research, reporting, Python, AutoCAD, MYOB, Power BI, or project coordination, and you genuinely have that experience, include those terms.
But do not turn the resume into a keyword salad. Recruiters notice. ATS may help you get found, but a human still needs to believe the resume.
The best ATS strategy is boring in the best way: clean structure, relevant wording, honest evidence, and no formatting nonsense.
Recruiters and hiring managers do not always look at resumes the same way.
A recruiter often screens for fit, clarity, eligibility, role alignment, communication, salary expectations if relevant, work rights, and whether the resume is strong enough to progress.
A hiring manager usually looks more closely at whether the candidate can realistically do the work in their team.
For graduate roles, hiring managers often notice:
Whether your degree or projects align with the role
Whether your experience shows maturity and reliability
Whether your bullet points show initiative or only basic task completion
Whether you communicate clearly
Whether your resume suggests you understand the role
Whether you have used relevant tools or systems
Whether you seem coachable
That word “coachable” is important. Hiring managers do not say it in every job ad, but they think about it constantly when hiring graduates.
A graduate who seems curious, organised, honest about their level, and able to learn is often more attractive than a graduate who tries too hard to sound impressive but gives no real evidence.
You can write a strong graduate resume even if you have limited formal work experience. The trick is to widen your definition of evidence.
Relevant evidence may come from:
University projects
Group assignments
Capstone projects
Internships
Placements
Casual work
Volunteering
Student societies
Sports leadership
Tutoring
Freelance work
Personal projects
Online courses
Certifications
Community involvement
If you are light on experience, your projects section becomes more important. Your education section should include relevant coursework and practical assignments. Your skills section should be sharper. Your summary should be specific about the type of role you are targeting.
What you should not do is fill space with personality claims. Employers are not comforted by a resume that says “I am eager to learn” seven different ways. Show learning through examples.
For example, a computer science graduate without an internship can include GitHub projects, technical coursework, hackathons, app builds, database projects, or coding challenges. A marketing graduate can include campaign projects, content samples, analytics coursework, student society promotions, or volunteer social media work. An accounting graduate can include taxation coursework, Excel modelling, MYOB training, volunteer bookkeeping, or finance related projects.
The question is not “Do I have experience?” The question is “What evidence do I have that reduces doubt?”
A graduate resume template should make your information easier to understand. It should not try to look clever.
Good templates are simple, clean, and structured. They use clear headings, consistent spacing, readable fonts, and a logical order. They allow the recruiter to scan quickly without fighting the design.
Avoid templates with:
Photos
Skill bars
Icons replacing words
Heavy colour blocks
Multiple columns that may not parse well
Decorative graphics
Tiny text
Fancy layouts that prioritise appearance over readability
Skill bars are especially useless. Saying you are “80 percent skilled” in Excel means absolutely nothing. I have never seen a hiring manager say, “Excellent, this candidate appears to be seven bars fluent in teamwork.”
Use words instead. Better yet, use evidence.
A strong graduate resume template should help answer the employer’s questions quickly. What did you study? What role are you targeting? What experience do you have? What tools can you use? What have you done that suggests you can succeed here?
If the template gets in the way of those answers, it is not helping you.
Before sending your graduate resume, review it like a recruiter would.
Ask yourself:
Can someone understand my target role within ten seconds?
Is my degree easy to find?
Have I included my graduation year or expected completion date?
Does my summary say something specific?
Are my most relevant projects, internships, or placements visible?
Have I translated casual work into transferable workplace evidence?
Are my bullet points specific enough?
Have I included relevant tools, systems, or technical skills?
Is my resume ATS friendly?
Have I removed generic claims that are not backed by evidence?
Is the resume tailored to the role without sounding copied from the job ad?
Is the formatting clean and easy to scan?
Have I proofread properly?
That last one sounds basic, but it matters. A typo will not always ruin your application, but a messy resume can make employers question your attention to detail, especially for roles involving reporting, administration, analysis, communication, or client work.
Your graduate resume does not need to make you look like a finished product. It needs to make you look like a strong early career hire with evidence, direction, and enough judgement to be worth interviewing.
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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