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Create ResumeIf you have no Australian experience, your resume needs to do one main job: make your overseas experience feel easy for an Australian employer to understand, trust, and compare. The issue is rarely that your experience is not valuable. The issue is that recruiters and hiring managers move quickly, and anything unfamiliar creates hesitation. Your resume must translate your background into Australian hiring language, show relevant outcomes, remove confusion, and prove you can work effectively in the local environment. Do not hide your overseas experience. Do not apologise for it. Position it properly, clearly, and commercially so the reader can see your value without doing detective work.
Let’s be honest about the phrase “Australian experience”. Sometimes it is a lazy hiring shortcut. Sometimes it is a genuine concern about local systems, workplace communication, compliance, customer expectations, or industry standards. And sometimes it is just vague employer language for “I am not sure how this person will fit into our environment”.
That is the part candidates often miss.
When an employer says they want Australian experience, they may actually mean:
Can this person communicate clearly with local teams, customers, clients, or stakeholders?
Do they understand Australian workplace expectations?
Will they need heavy training on local systems, legislation, standards, or processes?
Are their previous companies, job titles, qualifications, and achievements comparable to what we need?
Can they adapt quickly without the manager having to explain every small workplace norm?
The biggest mistake is writing the resume as if the reader already understands your previous market.
They do not.
A hiring manager in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, or Darwin may not know your previous employer, your university, your local industry structure, your job title hierarchy, or the scale of your role. A recruiter may not know whether “Executive” means entry level, mid level, or senior in your previous country. They may not know whether your previous company was a small local business or a major multinational.
This is where good candidates accidentally look weaker.
Your resume cannot simply list what you did. It needs to give context.
Weak Example
Customer Service Executive
ABC Group
Handled customer queries and complaints.
This tells me almost nothing. What kind of customers? What volume? What channels? What systems? What industry? What level of complexity?
Good Example
Customer Service Executive
ABC Group, telecommunications provider serving more than 500,000 customers
Managed daily customer enquiries across phone, email, and CRM, resolving billing, service disruption, and account issues while meeting response time and quality targets.
This is stronger because it gives the Australian reader something to work with. It explains scale, industry, customer type, responsibilities, and relevance.
That is the difference between “foreign experience” and “transferable experience”.
Are they available, work ready, and legally able to work in Australia?
Your resume needs to answer those concerns before the recruiter has time to doubt you.
I have seen very capable candidates lose momentum because their resume made their background look further away from the Australian role than it really was. Not because they lacked skill. Because the resume did not translate the skill.
That is the real work here.
Overseas experience should not be treated like a disadvantage. It should be treated like evidence. The problem is that evidence needs to be readable.
Australian recruiters usually screen quickly. They are trying to understand:
What role are you suitable for?
What level are you operating at?
Have you done similar work before?
Can your skills transfer into this workplace?
Are there any risks, gaps, or unclear details?
Should you be shortlisted, rejected, or held as a maybe?
Your resume should make those answers obvious.
Some job titles do not travel well.
For example, a “Business Development Executive” in one country may be equivalent to an Account Manager in Australia. A “Senior Officer” may sound administrative, but the actual work may involve project coordination, compliance, reporting, stakeholder management, or team leadership.
You do not need to invent a new title. You do need to clarify it.
Good Format
Business Development Executive
Equivalent Australian role: Account Manager
ABC Logistics, Singapore
This helps without looking dishonest. It gives the recruiter a local comparison while preserving your actual title.
If the employer is not well known in Australia, add a short descriptor.
Example
Nexa Foods, leading FMCG distributor supplying 1,200 retail outlets across Malaysia
That one line does more than people realise. It tells me the industry, scale, and commercial environment. Without it, the company name is just a mystery.
Recruiters do not have time to research every company on every resume. Strong candidates make the comparison easy.
This does not mean stuffing your resume with keywords. It means using terms that match how Australian job ads describe the work.
For example, depending on your field, Australian job ads may refer to:
Stakeholder management
Client engagement
Compliance
WHS
Rostering
Accounts payable and receivable
Case management
Customer service
Administration
Procurement
If your resume uses only terminology from your previous country, an ATS or recruiter may not connect your experience to the role. That is frustrating, but it is also reality. Your job is to reduce friction.
When you have no Australian experience, the top section of your resume matters more than usual. This is where the recruiter decides whether your background is relevant or risky.
Do not start with a vague career objective like “seeking a challenging role where I can grow”. Nobody is rejecting candidates because their resume lacked the word “challenging”. They reject because the fit is unclear.
Use a focused professional summary.
Your summary should cover:
Your profession or target role
Your total relevant experience
Your industry or functional background
Transferable strengths
Australian work rights if relevant
Your immediate value to the employer
Example
Administration and customer service professional with five years of experience supporting high volume service teams across banking and telecommunications. Skilled in client enquiries, CRM updates, document handling, reporting, scheduling, and issue resolution. Recently relocated to Australia with full working rights and available for immediate employment.
This works because it gives the recruiter the main information quickly. It does not beg. It does not over explain. It positions the candidate as ready, relevant, and practical.
Your migration journey may be meaningful, but your resume is not the place for a long personal explanation. Keep it professional.
Weak Example
I recently moved to Australia and am looking for an opportunity to prove myself. Although I do not have Australian experience, I am hardworking, passionate, and willing to learn.
This creates the wrong frame. It leads with lack.
Good Example
Operations coordinator with four years of experience managing supplier communication, inventory records, order tracking, and internal reporting in fast paced distribution environments. Strong background in process coordination, Excel reporting, stakeholder communication, and deadline driven support.
This leads with value.
Hiring managers do not need you to apologise for not having Australian experience. They need evidence that you can do the work.
Your work experience section needs to prove transferability.
Do not simply list duties. Duties are not enough when the employer is already unsure whether your experience translates. You need to show the environment, responsibility, complexity, and results.
For each overseas role, include:
Job title
Company name
Location
Dates
One line explaining the company if needed
Main responsibilities written in Australian hiring language
Achievements with numbers, scale, systems, or outcomes where possible
Example
Customer Service Representative
GlobalConnect Telecom, Manila, Philippines
Telecommunications provider supporting mobile, broadband, and enterprise customers
Managed 60 to 80 customer enquiries per day across billing, technical support, account updates, and service complaints
Used Salesforce to update customer records, document case notes, escalate unresolved issues, and track service outcomes
Resolved first contact enquiries while maintaining quality, compliance, and customer satisfaction targets
Supported new team members with call handling processes, CRM navigation, and complaint escalation standards
Recognised by team leader for consistently meeting response time and quality benchmarks
This is the kind of experience that can translate into Australian customer service, contact centre, administration, service coordinator, or client support roles.
Notice what makes it stronger. It uses volume, systems, customer types, and outcomes. It helps the recruiter understand the level of work.
No, not in those words.
Never put “no Australian experience” in your resume. Do not frame yourself by what you lack.
Instead, address the concern through positive evidence.
You can mention:
Australian work rights
Local availability
Relevant overseas experience
Australian qualifications or short courses
Local volunteer work, placements, internships, or projects
Transferable systems and skills
Industry knowledge
Customer facing communication
Adaptability across markets
There is a big difference between transparency and self sabotage.
Weak Example
I do not have Australian experience but I am willing to learn.
Good Example
International customer service background with strong experience in complaint handling, CRM updates, service recovery, and high volume client communication. Available immediately with full working rights in Australia.
The second version answers the concern without turning your resume into a confession.
A resume that feels local is not about pretending to be someone you are not. It is about matching Australian hiring expectations.
Australian resumes are usually clear, practical, and achievement focused. Avoid heavy graphics, photos, personal details, excessive colours, and long blocks of text.
Do not include:
Photo
Date of birth
Marital status
Religion
Passport number
Full home address
Unnecessary personal information
Long career objective
Overdesigned templates that confuse ATS systems
Use:
Name
Phone number
Professional email
City and state
LinkedIn profile if strong and relevant
Work rights if useful
Professional summary
Key skills
Work experience
Education and certifications
Use Australian spelling and terminology.
Write:
Organisation, not organization
Specialise, not specialize
Licence, not license as a noun
Resume, not résumé if you prefer plain formatting
Mobile, not cell phone
Hiring manager, not recruiting manager unless that is the actual title
Small details matter. They signal that you understand the local environment.
If you have full working rights, permanent residency, citizenship, a partner visa with work rights, or another work arrangement relevant to the role, make it clear.
You can include a simple line near the top:
Work rights: Full working rights in Australia
Or:
Work rights: Temporary Graduate visa with full time work rights
Be accurate. Do not hide important visa details if they affect availability or employment conditions. Recruiters will ask anyway, and unclear work rights can move you into the “too hard” pile.
When I screen a resume with no Australian experience, I am not automatically thinking “no”. I am thinking “can I confidently present this person to the hiring manager?”
That is a different question.
A recruiter needs to feel they can explain your fit quickly.
They need to be able to say:
This candidate has done similar work overseas
The environment is comparable
The skills are transferable
The communication looks strong
Their work rights are clear
Their resume matches the job requirements
There is enough evidence to justify a conversation
If your resume is vague, the recruiter has to work too hard. And in a busy shortlist, vague candidates lose.
Hiring is not always about choosing the best person in theory. It is often about choosing the person who feels safest to interview, recommend, and hire.
That can sound unfair, but understanding it helps you write a better resume.
A safe candidate is not necessarily perfect. A safe candidate is clear.
Their resume answers:
What have they done?
Where have they done it?
How senior were they?
What systems did they use?
What results did they achieve?
Why are they suitable for this role now?
When you lack Australian experience, clarity becomes your advantage.
A skills section can help when you have no Australian experience, but only if it is specific.
Do not write a random list of soft skills like “hardworking, reliable, team player, motivated, fast learner”. These words are so overused that most recruiters barely register them.
Use skills that match the job ad and can be proven in your experience.
Good Skills Section Example
Key Skills
Customer enquiry management
Complaint handling and service recovery
CRM data entry and case documentation
Appointment scheduling and calendar coordination
Invoice processing and payment follow up
Stakeholder communication
Microsoft Excel reporting
Administrative support
Order tracking and supplier coordination
High volume email and phone communication
This gives the recruiter searchable, relevant evidence. It also supports ATS matching without sounding stuffed.
A common mistake is trying to show everything you can do. That usually weakens the resume.
If you are applying for administration roles, lead with administration skills. If you are applying for customer service roles, lead with customer service skills. If you are applying for accounting assistant roles, lead with accounts, reconciliation, invoicing, Excel, ERP systems, and reporting.
The resume should not say “I can do anything”. It should say “I am clearly suitable for this”.
Overseas qualifications can be valuable, but again, the Australian reader needs context.
If your qualification is directly relevant, include it clearly. If there is an Australian equivalent, accreditation, assessment, or local study, mention it where accurate.
Example
Bachelor of Commerce
University of Mumbai, India
Comparable to an Australian undergraduate business qualification
Only use equivalency wording if you genuinely know it is accurate. Do not guess.
If you have completed Australian courses, licences, certificates, or compliance training, include them because they reduce perceived risk.
Relevant examples may include:
RSA for hospitality roles
White Card for construction roles
First Aid certificate
Working With Children Check
Police Check
MYOB, Xero, or accounting software training
AHPRA registration for regulated health roles
CPA Australia or CA ANZ progress where relevant
TAFE courses
Short courses connected to your target role
Local certifications do not magically replace experience, but they help show work readiness.
If you do not have Australian paid experience yet, you may still have local evidence worth including.
This can include:
Volunteer work
Internships
University placements
Community work
Freelance projects
Casual work
Short term contracts
Local training
Australian study projects
Industry networking or mentoring programs
Practical projects connected to your target role
Do not dismiss these because they are not your ideal job. Early local evidence can help reduce doubt.
If your local experience is relevant, include it before older overseas experience or in a separate section called Australian Experience, Local Experience, or Volunteer Experience.
Example
Volunteer Administration Assistant
Community Support Centre, Melbourne, VIC
Supported front desk enquiries, appointment booking, document scanning, and client record updates
Assisted staff with email follow ups, spreadsheet updates, and basic reporting
Communicated with clients from diverse backgrounds while maintaining confidentiality and professional service standards
This can be useful because it shows you have worked in an Australian setting, even if unpaid.
But do not overinflate it. Recruiters can tell when a two week volunteer role is being dressed up as a senior operations position. Keep it honest.
Senior candidates often face a different problem.
They may have strong overseas leadership experience but get told they need “local experience” before being considered for equivalent roles in Australia. This can be deeply frustrating.
The resume challenge is not just proving competence. It is proving transferability at the right level.
If you are a senior candidate, your resume should show:
Size of team managed
Budget responsibility
Revenue, cost, or operational impact
Stakeholder level
Markets covered
Reporting line
Decision making authority
Systems and governance exposure
Change, transformation, or growth outcomes
Cross functional leadership
Weak Example
Managed sales team and achieved targets.
Good Example
Led a team of 12 sales consultants across two regional branches, managing pipeline reviews, coaching, forecasting, client negotiations, and monthly performance reporting. Increased annual revenue by 18 percent through improved account segmentation and follow up discipline.
This gives the Australian hiring manager something concrete.
For senior roles, vague leadership language is deadly. Hiring managers need scale and evidence. Otherwise, they assume the role may not be comparable.
If you have no Australian experience and you are also changing careers, your resume needs to be even more focused.
Do not rely on the employer to connect the dots. They will not.
You need to build a bridge between your past work and your target role.
For example, if you worked in banking overseas and want an Australian administration role, highlight:
Document handling
Customer communication
Compliance
Data accuracy
CRM or banking systems
Appointment coordination
Reporting
Confidential information handling
Problem resolution
If you worked in hospitality overseas and want customer service roles, highlight:
High volume customer interaction
Complaint handling
POS systems
Rostering
Cash handling
Upselling
Team coordination
Working under pressure
Your resume should not be a full autobiography. It should be a relevance document.
That is the part many candidates resist. They feel cutting details means undervaluing their career. It does not. It means respecting the reader’s decision process.
Most mistakes come from trying too hard to compensate.
Do not write like you are asking for permission to be considered.
Avoid phrases like:
Despite having no Australian experience
I am willing to start anywhere
Please give me one chance
I am ready to prove myself
I can do any job
These may be sincere, but they weaken your positioning.
Employers hire for fit, not sympathy.
Generic resumes are especially risky when you lack local experience. You already have one possible objection. Do not add another by making the role fit unclear.
Tailor the resume for each role type.
This does not mean rewriting everything from scratch. It means adjusting the summary, key skills, and bullet points so the most relevant evidence appears first.
Some candidates include every task from every job because they are worried the employer will miss something.
The result is usually the opposite. The key information gets buried.
A resume with no Australian experience should be clear, not desperate. Two to three pages is usually enough for most professionals. Senior candidates may need more, but only if the content earns the space.
If your resume hides dates, countries, or work rights, recruiters may assume there is a problem.
Be clear. Gaps can be explained. Relocation can be explained. Career breaks can be explained. Confusing formatting creates more suspicion than the truth usually does.
Responsibilities tell me what your job description was. Results tell me whether you were effective.
Use numbers where possible:
Number of customers served
Team size
Revenue managed
Cases resolved
Reports prepared
Systems used
Processing volume
Error reduction
Time saved
Customer satisfaction
Not every role has dramatic metrics. That is fine. But every resume can show scale and impact.
Use a structure that reduces uncertainty quickly.
Recommended Resume Structure
Name and Contact Details
Include your name, mobile number, email, city and state, LinkedIn if relevant, and work rights if useful.
Professional Summary
Write three to five lines that position your experience for the target role.
Key Skills
Use role relevant skills that match the job ad and your real experience.
Professional Experience
List your most relevant roles. Add company context for overseas employers where needed.
Australian Experience or Volunteer Experience
Include local work, volunteering, placements, or projects if relevant.
Education and Certifications
Include overseas and Australian qualifications, licences, short courses, and registrations.
Technical Skills
Include systems, software, platforms, tools, languages, or industry specific technology.
Additional Information
Use only when useful, such as languages, availability, driver licence, or checks required for the role.
This structure works because it gives the recruiter the information in the order they usually need it.
These examples are not full resume templates. They are starting points for positioning.
Example: Administration
Administration professional with four years of experience supporting office operations, customer enquiries, document control, scheduling, and internal reporting. Skilled in Microsoft Office, data entry, CRM updates, email management, and stakeholder coordination. Available immediately with full working rights in Australia.
Example: Customer Service
Customer service specialist with six years of experience across high volume contact centre and front line service environments. Strong background in complaint resolution, account enquiries, CRM documentation, service recovery, and customer communication. Confident working with diverse customers and fast paced service targets.
Example: Accounting Assistant
Accounting support professional with experience in invoice processing, reconciliations, accounts payable, accounts receivable, expense tracking, and Excel reporting. Familiar with month end support, vendor communication, and accurate financial data entry. Currently building knowledge of Australian accounting systems including Xero and MYOB.
Example: IT Support
IT support technician with experience troubleshooting hardware, software, network, and user access issues across business environments. Skilled in ticket management, remote support, documentation, escalation, and end user communication. Strong ability to explain technical issues clearly to non technical users.
Example: Sales
Sales professional with experience managing client relationships, pipeline follow up, product presentations, quotations, and revenue targets. Strong background in customer needs analysis, account growth, CRM updates, and negotiation. Able to build trust quickly with new clients and adapt sales approach to local market expectations.
Australian hiring managers tend to respond well to evidence that is specific but not exaggerated.
Avoid inflated language such as “world class”, “visionary”, “exceptional”, or “best in industry” unless you can prove it. Strong resumes are not loud. They are precise.
Weak Example
Improved team performance significantly.
Good Example
Improved team response times by 22 percent by introducing a shared tracking spreadsheet and weekly follow up process.
If your previous role involved global clients, regulated industries, multinational companies, high volume operations, or cross cultural teams, say so.
That helps Australian employers see your experience as relevant.
Example
Supported enterprise clients across Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand, coordinating service requests, contract updates, and monthly reporting across multiple time zones.
This is especially useful if you have already worked with Australian customers, suppliers, systems, or stakeholders from overseas.
If you are applying for an entry level Australian role after senior overseas experience, be careful. Employers may worry you are overqualified, will leave quickly, or will be frustrated by the level of work.
You do not need to shrink your background, but you do need to position it sensibly.
For example, instead of leading with “Head of Operations”, you might write a summary that focuses on hands on operations coordination, process improvement, supplier communication, reporting, and team support if those are the skills needed for the target role.
This is not about hiding seniority. It is about making your application feel aligned.
Applicant tracking systems do not usually reject you because your experience is overseas. They filter, rank, search, and organise applications based on information in your resume.
The bigger issue is keyword mismatch.
If your resume uses job titles, tools, or terminology that are uncommon in Australia, it may not appear as relevant when recruiters search the database.
To improve ATS readability:
Use standard section headings such as Professional Experience, Education, Skills, and Certifications
Include the target job title naturally in your summary if accurate
Use keywords from the job ad where they genuinely match your experience
Avoid tables, text boxes, icons, graphics, and unusual formatting
Spell out acronyms when useful
Use both local and technical terms where appropriate
Save the file in the format requested by the employer
Do not write for ATS only. That is how people end up with ugly, robotic resumes. Write for the recruiter first, but make the resume easy for the system to read.
A strong resume is important, but the best results usually come from pairing it with a focused application strategy.
For this specific situation, the resume should be supported by:
Applying for roles where your overseas experience genuinely matches the work
Targeting companies that value international experience
Being clear about work rights and availability
Using a short, specific cover letter when useful
Building local referees through volunteering, study, projects, or contract work
Speaking to recruiters in your target field, not every recruiter on LinkedIn
Adjusting your target level if the market is not responding
That last point is uncomfortable, but important.
Sometimes candidates need a stepping stone role in Australia. Not because they are incapable, but because the market uses local proof as a shortcut. The first local role often changes how employers read the rest of your background.
The goal is not to start again forever. The goal is to create local evidence, then move strategically.
Before sending your resume, check whether it answers the questions an Australian recruiter is likely to have.
Your resume should clearly show:
The type of role you are targeting
Your relevant overseas experience
Company context where the employer may be unfamiliar
Skills that match the Australian job ad
Clear work rights and availability where useful
Achievements, not just duties
Systems, tools, and industry exposure
Local study, volunteer work, or projects if relevant
Clean formatting that works for ATS and human readers
Australian English spelling and terminology
No apology for lacking Australian experience
The best version of your resume does not beg the employer to take a chance. It makes the chance feel reasonable.
That is the real shift.
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.
Reporting
CRM systems
Team leadership
Continuous improvement
Sales pipeline
Budget management
Technical skills where relevant
Volunteer work or local experience where useful
Referees available on request, unless the job asks for referees upfront
Cost reduction
Sales growth
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