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Create ResumeA resume review in Australia should do more than check spelling, layout, or whether your resume “looks professional”. A proper review should tell you whether your resume is likely to get shortlisted for the roles you actually want. That means assessing your positioning, relevance, achievements, keywords, structure, readability, ATS compatibility, and whether a recruiter or hiring manager can quickly understand your value.
Most weak resume feedback is polite, vague, and almost useless. “Looks good” is not a review. “Add more keywords” is not a strategy. A useful resume review shows what is missing, what is unclear, what is weakening your application, and what needs to change so your resume works in the Australian job market.
A resume review is an assessment of how well your resume presents your experience, skills, achievements, and suitability for Australian jobs.
That sounds simple. In practice, a good resume review answers a much sharper question:
Would this resume make a recruiter, hiring manager, or employer want to speak to you?
That is the real test.
In Australia, your resume is usually the first serious filter in the hiring process. Before anyone hears your voice, sees your personality, or understands the nuance behind your career decisions, they see a document. That document has to do a lot of work quickly.
A strong resume review should look at:
Whether your resume matches the roles you are targeting
Whether your experience is positioned clearly
Whether your achievements are specific enough
Whether your resume is easy to scan
Whether your skills and keywords match Australian job ads
Resume advice is not universal. A resume that works in one country, industry, or hiring culture can feel awkward or ineffective in another.
In the Australian job market, employers usually expect a resume that is direct, practical, achievement focused, and easy to scan. The tone should be confident without sounding exaggerated. The content should be specific without becoming painfully long. The layout should be clean without looking like a graphic design experiment that escaped supervision.
Australian hiring managers tend to care about:
Relevant experience
Clear job titles and responsibilities
Evidence of outcomes
Industry familiarity
Communication style
Local market understanding
Whether your content feels credible rather than inflated
Whether the layout works for both ATS systems and human readers
Whether your resume explains your value quickly enough
The biggest mistake I see candidates make is thinking a resume review is mainly about grammar or formatting. Those things matter, yes, but they are not the main reason most resumes fail.
Most resumes fail because the reader cannot quickly answer:
Why this person, for this role, over the other qualified applicants?
That is the part a proper review needs to fix.
Practical capability
Whether the candidate looks easy to assess
That last point matters more than candidates realise.
A recruiter may review dozens or hundreds of resumes for one role. They are not reading each resume like a novel. They are scanning for fit, risk, relevance, and proof. If your resume makes them work too hard, they may move on even if your background is strong.
This is where Australian resume reviews need to be more than cosmetic. They need to understand how local employers read applications.
For example, a resume written for the US market may lean heavily on personal branding language, dense achievement statements, or shorter one page formatting. A resume written for some European markets may include personal details that are not expected in Australia. A resume from overseas may also assume that job titles, qualifications, or employers are self explanatory when they are not.
A good Australian resume review should identify those gaps and help translate your experience into language local employers understand.
A strong resume review should not simply say your resume is “good” or “needs improvement”. That tells you almost nothing. It should break down the resume like a recruiter would during shortlisting.
This is the first thing I look at.
A resume is not good in isolation. It is only good in relation to the role it is trying to win.
A finance resume for a senior analyst role should not read like a general administration resume. A project manager resume should not bury delivery scope, stakeholders, budgets, systems, and outcomes under vague phrases like “responsible for managing projects”. A customer service resume should not list duties without showing volume, complexity, customer type, systems, complaints handling, or service outcomes.
A useful resume review should ask:
What roles are you targeting?
Does the resume match those roles clearly?
Are the most relevant skills visible early?
Is the career direction obvious?
Does the resume include content that distracts from the target role?
This is where many candidates go wrong. They try to create one resume that covers everything they have ever done. That usually produces a document that says a lot, but positions them for nothing in particular.
Australian recruiters are not trying to solve a puzzle. If the role is for a business analyst, the resume needs to make business analysis experience obvious. If the role is for an operations manager, operational leadership needs to be clear. If the role is for an early career marketing assistant, transferable skills need to be framed around marketing support, campaign coordination, content, reporting, and stakeholder work.
A good review does not just ask whether your resume is accurate. It asks whether it is strategically useful.
The professional summary is one of the most misused sections on Australian resumes.
A weak summary says things like:
Weak Example
“Motivated and hardworking professional with excellent communication skills and a passion for delivering results.”
This tells me almost nothing. It could belong to a graduate, a store manager, a project coordinator, a payroll officer, or half of LinkedIn on a Monday morning.
A strong summary gives the reader immediate context.
Good Example
“Customer service team leader with experience managing high volume contact centre operations across telecommunications and utilities. Skilled in coaching frontline teams, handling escalated complaints, improving service processes, and using CRM data to monitor performance and customer trends.”
This works because it answers the recruiter’s first questions quickly:
What does this person do?
What environments have they worked in?
What strengths are relevant?
What type of role might they suit?
A resume review should assess whether your summary is doing real work or just taking up space.
The summary should not be a motivational speech. It should be a positioning tool.
Recruiters scan resumes quickly. That does not mean they are careless. It means they are looking for evidence in a very practical way.
A good Australian resume review should check whether the structure helps the reader find information fast.
That includes:
Clear section headings
Reverse chronological work history
Consistent job title, company, location, and date formatting
Strong use of white space
Bullet points that are specific but not bloated
Skills placed where they support the application
No unnecessary design elements that interfere with reading
A common problem I see is candidates trying to make the resume look impressive before making it useful. They add columns, icons, rating bars, logos, colours, text boxes, and visual flourishes. Then the actual content becomes harder to read.
A recruiter is not impressed by a resume because it looks decorative. They are impressed because the right information is easy to find and the candidate looks credible.
Clean beats clever.
This is where a resume review becomes genuinely valuable.
Many candidates list responsibilities, not achievements. Responsibilities tell me what your job description said. Achievements tell me what you actually contributed.
Weak Example
“Responsible for managing customer enquiries and resolving issues.”
Good Example
“Managed up to 60 customer enquiries per day across phone and email, resolving billing, account, and service issues while maintaining strong customer satisfaction scores.”
The good version is stronger because it gives scope, volume, channels, issue types, and performance context.
Not every achievement needs a number, but it does need substance. If you improved a process, say what changed. If you supported a team, say how. If you managed stakeholders, say who they were and what you helped deliver. If you used systems, name the relevant ones when they matter.
A proper resume review should identify where your bullet points are too vague, too duty based, or too passive.
It should also be honest about overclaiming. Some resumes try too hard to sound senior and end up sounding inflated. Hiring managers notice when the language is bigger than the evidence.
There is a difference between confident positioning and dressing a standard task in a tuxedo.
Applicant tracking systems are part of modern Australian hiring, especially in larger organisations, government, health, education, finance, retail, technology, and corporate recruitment.
But ATS advice online is often overdramatic. Some people talk about ATS as if it is a mysterious robot dragon guarding the job market. In reality, ATS systems store, parse, search, rank, and organise applications. The exact setup depends on the employer, the system, and how the recruiter uses it.
A good resume review should check whether your resume is ATS friendly without making silly promises.
That means assessing:
Whether the file format is appropriate
Whether the layout parses cleanly
Whether important information is in standard text
Whether job titles and dates are easy to read
Whether relevant keywords appear naturally
Whether section headings are standard
Whether tables, columns, icons, and graphics create risk
The goal is not to trick the ATS. The goal is to make your resume easy for systems and humans to understand.
Keyword stuffing is not strategy. Repeating “project management” twelve times does not make you a project manager. A recruiter still needs evidence.
The best ATS friendly resumes combine clear formatting, relevant terminology, and strong proof.
A resume review should check whether your language matches the Australian roles you are applying for.
This does not mean copying job ads word for word. It means using the terminology employers actually search for and recognise.
For example, depending on the role, Australian employers may expect terms such as:
Stakeholder management
Compliance
WHS
Rostering
Budget management
CRM
MYOB
Xero
Salesforce
Case management
Procurement
Governance
Risk management
Continuous improvement
Customer experience
Project delivery
Workforce planning
The right keywords depend entirely on the target role. A childcare resume, mining resume, APS resume, accounting resume, construction resume, healthcare resume, sales resume, and IT resume should not sound the same.
This is why generic resume reviews often disappoint. They might tidy the wording, but they do not always understand the role language that drives shortlisting.
A useful resume review should compare your resume against the job market you are targeting, not against a generic writing checklist.
A proper resume review should look at anything that might create questions for a recruiter.
That includes:
Employment gaps
Short tenure
Career changes
Overseas experience
Unusual job titles
Contract roles
Redundancy patterns
Returning to work after leave
Moving industries
Senior candidates applying for lower level roles
These things are not automatically problems. They become problems when the resume leaves the reader guessing.
Recruiters do not reject every candidate with a gap or career change. That is not how hiring works. But they do look for risk, clarity, and context.
If your resume shows three short roles in a row with no explanation, the recruiter may wonder whether there is a pattern. If you are changing careers but your resume is still written for your old industry, the hiring manager may not see the connection. If all your experience is overseas and the Australian employer does not recognise the companies or job titles, your resume may need more context.
A good resume review should not shame these situations. It should help you position them properly.
Most basic resume reviews focus on surface issues.
They tell you:
Your formatting needs improvement
Your resume should include more keywords
Your bullet points should be more results focused
Your summary should be stronger
Your resume should be ATS friendly
None of that is wrong. It is just incomplete.
The real value is in the diagnosis.
A weak review says, “Add more achievements.”
A strong review says, “Your achievements are not convincing because they describe activity without scope, impact, complexity, or commercial relevance. The hiring manager cannot tell whether you supported basic tasks or owned meaningful outcomes.”
That difference matters.
Poor resume reviews often miss:
Whether the resume matches the actual seniority of the target role
Whether the candidate is under positioning or over positioning themselves
Whether the resume answers likely employer concerns
Whether the content reflects Australian hiring expectations
Whether the strongest evidence is buried too low
Whether the resume feels credible for the salary level
Whether the career story makes sense
Whether the resume creates doubt instead of confidence
This is where recruiter judgement becomes important. Resume writing is not only about better wording. It is about understanding how decisions are made when employers compare candidates.
A free resume review can be useful, but you need to understand what you are getting.
Free reviews are often designed to identify obvious issues and encourage you to buy a paid service. That does not make them bad. It just means they may be limited.
A free resume review may help you spot:
Formatting issues
Missing sections
Weak summary language
Basic ATS problems
Obvious spelling or grammar mistakes
Generic bullet points
A paid resume review should go deeper. It should assess your resume against your target roles, seniority, industry expectations, and hiring market.
Before paying for a resume review in Australia, ask yourself whether the provider can actually explain hiring logic, not just edit sentences.
A useful paid review should give you:
Specific comments on what is working and what is not
Feedback tied to your target roles
Clear explanation of why changes matter
Practical recommendations you can implement
Honest comments on positioning and competitiveness
Guidance on structure, content, keywords, and achievements
Be careful with reviews that rely too much on automated scoring. Resume scoring tools can catch some issues, but they cannot fully judge context, credibility, market fit, or whether a hiring manager would take you seriously.
A resume can score well and still fail with humans.
That is the part people do not like hearing, but it is true.
Recruiters do not read resumes the way candidates imagine.
Most candidates picture someone sitting with a coffee, carefully appreciating every detail of their career journey. Lovely idea. Not usually reality.
In a real recruitment process, the recruiter is often scanning against a brief. That brief may include required experience, preferred skills, salary range, location, availability, work rights, industry background, systems knowledge, stakeholder exposure, and level of responsibility.
The recruiter is looking for signs of match and signs of risk.
They may ask:
Has this person done a similar role?
Are they at the right level?
Do they have the required technical skills?
Is their industry background relevant?
Does their salary expectation likely fit?
Is their recent experience aligned with the vacancy?
Are there unexplained gaps or confusing moves?
Can I confidently present this person to the hiring manager?
That last question is important.
Recruiters are not only assessing whether you are good. They are assessing whether they can justify you.
If your resume is unclear, they have to work harder to advocate for you. In a competitive shortlist, that is not ideal.
Hiring managers read slightly differently. They often care less about perfect wording and more about capability, relevance, and whether your experience feels close enough to their environment.
A strong resume works for both audiences. It gives recruiters enough match evidence to shortlist you and hiring managers enough confidence to want a conversation.
You probably need a resume review if you are applying for relevant jobs and not getting interviews.
Not one or two applications. That happens to everyone. But if you are consistently applying for roles that genuinely match your background and hearing nothing, your resume may not be doing its job.
Common signs include:
You are getting no response from jobs you are qualified for
You are only getting calls for roles below your level
Recruiters misunderstand your experience
You are changing careers and your resume feels scattered
You have strong experience but weak achievement statements
Your resume is too long but you do not know what to cut
You have overseas experience and are applying in Australia
You are returning to work after a break
Your resume sounds like a job description rather than a candidate profile
You are applying across too many role types with one generic resume
The important thing is to diagnose the right problem.
Sometimes the issue is the resume. Sometimes it is the job search strategy. Sometimes it is salary alignment, location, work rights, competition, industry demand, or applying for roles that are close but not close enough.
A good resume review should be honest about this. It should not pretend the resume is always the only issue.
To get useful feedback, you need to provide context. Otherwise, the reviewer is guessing.
Before asking for a resume review, prepare:
Your current resume
A few job ads you want to target
The roles and industries you are applying for
Your preferred seniority level
Any concerns such as gaps, career change, or overseas experience
Whether you are applying for private sector, government, non profit, or agency roles
Whether you want feedback only or a full rewrite
This matters because a resume cannot be reviewed properly without knowing the destination.
A resume for an APS role may need different emphasis from a resume for a private sector operations role. A graduate resume needs different feedback from an executive resume. A healthcare resume needs different evidence from a sales resume. A technical resume needs different detail from an administration resume.
When candidates say, “Can you review my resume?” my first thought is usually, “For what?”
That is not me being difficult. That is the whole point.
Good feedback is specific, practical, and sometimes slightly uncomfortable.
It should not be cruel. It should not be vague. It should not flatter you into keeping a weak resume.
Good resume feedback sounds like:
“Your recent role is relevant, but the strongest evidence is buried under generic duties.”
“The summary does not position you clearly for the roles you want.”
“Your bullet points list tasks but do not show scale, complexity, or outcomes.”
“Your resume reads too senior for the roles you are applying for, which may create salary or fit concerns.”
“Your overseas experience needs more context for Australian employers.”
“The layout looks modern, but it may create parsing issues and slows down scanning.”
“You are using the right keywords, but there is not enough proof behind them.”
“Your career change makes sense in conversation, but the resume does not explain the bridge.”
This kind of feedback helps because it tells you what to change and why it matters.
Vague feedback feels nicer, but it does not help you get interviews.
You can do a basic resume review yourself before paying anyone.
Read your resume like a tired recruiter with too many tabs open. Brutal, but useful.
Ask yourself:
Can I understand the target role within the first few seconds?
Is the most relevant experience easy to find?
Do my bullet points show outcomes, scope, systems, stakeholders, or complexity?
Have I used language from Australian job ads naturally?
Is my resume tailored enough for this type of role?
Are there unexplained gaps or confusing transitions?
Does my summary say anything meaningful?
Is the layout clean and ATS friendly?
Would a hiring manager understand why I am suitable?
Is anything on the resume taking up space without helping my case?
Then compare your resume to three job ads for your target role. Look for repeated requirements, terminology, systems, responsibilities, and outcomes. If those things are genuinely part of your experience but missing from your resume, that is a problem.
Do not copy job ads blindly. Translate your real experience into relevant evidence.
That is the difference between tailoring and keyword stuffing.
Use this checklist before applying for jobs in Australia.
Role alignment
The resume clearly matches the target role
The most relevant experience appears early
The summary reflects the roles being targeted
Irrelevant details are reduced or removed
Australian hiring expectations
The resume uses Australian English
The terminology matches local job ads
The document avoids unnecessary personal details
Overseas roles or companies have enough context
Recruiter readability
The layout is clean and easy to scan
Job titles, employers, dates, and locations are clear
The structure follows a logical reverse chronological order
Bullet points are concise but meaningful
Achievement strength
Bullet points show outcomes, scale, complexity, or contribution
Responsibilities are not simply copied from job descriptions
Metrics are included where useful and honest
Claims are backed by evidence
ATS compatibility
The resume uses standard headings
Important text is not trapped in graphics or images
Keywords are included naturally
Formatting is simple enough to parse cleanly
Credibility
The language sounds confident but believable
The resume does not over inflate responsibilities
Career gaps or changes are handled clearly
The overall story makes sense
This checklist will not replace a detailed review, but it will help you catch the most common issues before your resume reaches an employer.
The biggest mistake is asking for feedback from the wrong person.
Friends, family, colleagues, and managers can be helpful, but they may not understand recruitment screening. A former boss may know you are excellent, but they may not know how your resume compares in a cold shortlist. A friend may say it “looks great” because they are being supportive. Support is nice. It does not always get you interviews.
Another mistake is asking too many people. When five people give five different opinions, candidates often end up with a Frankenstein resume stitched together from random preferences. One person likes colour. Another hates summaries. Someone wants one page. Someone else wants four pages. Chaos enters the chat.
The better approach is to filter feedback through hiring logic.
Ask:
Does this feedback improve my chances with the roles I want?
Is it based on recruitment reality or personal preference?
Does it make my resume clearer, stronger, or more relevant?
Can the person explain why the change matters?
Do not change your resume just because someone has a strong opinion. Strong opinions are everywhere. Useful judgement is rarer.
Sometimes a review is enough. Sometimes you need a full resume rewrite.
A review may be enough if your resume is already solid but needs targeted improvements. A rewrite may be better if the structure, positioning, content, and achievements all need serious work.
You may need more than a review if:
Your resume is outdated
You are changing careers
You are targeting senior roles
Your experience is complex
You are moving into the Australian job market
Your current resume is not generating interviews
You do not know how to describe your achievements
Your resume has grown into a long list of everything you have ever done
A review tells you what is wrong. A rewrite fixes it.
Both can be useful, but they are not the same service.
Be clear about what you need. If you want direction, get a review. If you want a finished document, get a rewrite. If you are unsure, start with a review and see whether the issues are minor or structural.
A good resume review service should be practical, honest, and specific to your goals.
Look for someone who asks about your target roles before giving advice. If they review your resume without asking what you are applying for, the feedback may be too generic.
A strong provider should be able to explain:
What is weakening your resume
What needs to be changed first
How recruiters or hiring managers may interpret your content
Whether your resume matches Australian hiring expectations
How to improve clarity, relevance, achievements, and ATS compatibility
Whether your issue is resume quality, job targeting, or positioning
Be cautious with anyone who promises guaranteed interviews. No ethical resume reviewer can guarantee that. Hiring depends on many factors, including the market, competition, timing, salary, location, employer preferences, and role requirements.
What they can do is improve the quality and competitiveness of your application.
Also be cautious with overly generic template based feedback. Templates can help with structure, but they do not replace judgement. The best resume review is not about making your resume look like everyone else’s. It is about making your relevant value easier to understand.
The purpose of a resume review is not to create a perfect document. Perfect is not the goal. Effective is the goal.
Your resume needs to make the right employer think:
This person looks relevant enough to speak to.
That is the job.
A strong resume review helps remove friction from that decision. It clarifies your positioning, sharpens your evidence, improves readability, reduces doubt, and aligns your resume with the roles you want.
The best feedback does not just make your resume sound better. It makes it easier for recruiters and hiring managers to say yes to the next step.
That is what matters.
Not pretty wording. Not inflated phrases. Not a design that looks impressive on your laptop but collapses inside an ATS.
A good Australian resume review should help your resume do what it was built to do: get you considered seriously for the right roles.
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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