How to Write a Resume in Australia (2026 Format Guide)

Australian resumes follow different conventions from those in the US, UK, and other markets — and getting them wrong is a common reason otherwise qualified candidates get overlooked. This guide covers exactly what an Australian employer expects to see.

Length: How Long Should an Australian Resume Be?

Two to three pages is standard for most Australian resumes, which surprises candidates used to the strict one-page rule common in the US. Early-career candidates with limited experience should keep it closer to one to two pages, while experienced professionals with a longer, relevant work history can reasonably extend to three pages. See our dedicated guide on resume length in Australia for more detail by career stage.

The Standard Sections

A well-structured Australian resume typically includes, in this order:

1. Contact details — name, phone number, email, and city/suburb (a full street address isn't necessary and is increasingly left off for privacy).
2. Professional summary — two to four sentences summarising your experience and what you're looking for, tailored to the specific role.
3. Key skills — a short list or set of short lists of your most relevant skills, especially useful for ATS keyword matching.
4. Work experience — reverse chronological order (most recent first), with employer, role title, dates, and achievement-focused bullet points.
5. Education — qualifications, institution, and completion date (or expected completion date).
6. Additional sections as relevant — certifications, licences, volunteer experience, or professional memberships.

Formatting Conventions

Use a clean, single-column layout. Multi-column designs look modern but frequently confuse both applicant tracking systems and human readers skimming quickly — see our guide on ATS-friendly resumes for more on why this matters.

Reverse chronological order is the default. Unless you have a specific reason to use a functional or skills-based format (such as a significant career change), list your work history from most recent to oldest.

Australian date format. Use day/month/year or month/year consistently (e.g. "March 2023 – Present"), matching Australian conventions rather than the US month/day/year format.

No photo, age, or marital status. Unlike some European and Asian markets, Australian resumes don't include a photo, date of birth, or marital status — including them looks out of place and isn't expected.

What to Leave Off

References. Australian convention is to note "References available on request" rather than listing referee contact details directly on the resume — see our full guide on references on a resume.

A full street address. Suburb and state/postcode is enough; a full address isn't necessary and raises privacy considerations for little benefit.

An objective statement in place of a summary. Older-style "objective" statements describing what you want from a job have been largely replaced by a professional summary that leads with what you offer an employer.

Irrelevant early-career jobs, once you have enough professional experience to fill the space — a role from a decade ago in an unrelated field usually isn't worth the space unless it demonstrates a specific relevant skill.

Tailoring for Each Application

The single biggest difference between a resume that gets interviews and one that doesn't is whether it's tailored to the specific role. Australian recruiters and hiring managers, like most employers, respond better to a resume that clearly speaks to the job ad in front of them than one that reads as generic. This means adjusting your professional summary, reordering your key skills, and sometimes rewriting bullet points to emphasise the experience most relevant to each specific application.

Special Situations

If you're new to the Australian job market, see our guide on the Australian resume format for migrants and visa holders. If you're writing your very first resume with no formal work history, see how to write a resume with no experience.

Getting Started

Building a resume that follows these conventions from the ground up — rather than adapting a template built for a different market — makes a real difference to how it reads to an Australian employer. Our AI resume builder is built around Australian formatting standards by default, or browse real resume examples by role to see the format applied to a specific job.