wongstonn

Hi

At the Kent meet up last night someone had the opinion that the style employed to write a British CV for a British job was different to that required for Australian employers. I'm used to the usual Brit format, keep it to 2 pages, to the point, no waffle. As I'm writing a CV at the mo' some guidance would be gratefully received.

Has anyone already out there in Aus noticed any differences? Or does anyone know of any useful links.

P.S Though I doubt it is relevant, I am a project manager.

Cheers

Neil

melbournehelp

Neil,

Resume's in Oz should be tailored to the job you are appling for.
Start with bullet point of skills and experience, then bullet point qualifications
Then headings of jobs most recent first with one or two lines about responsibility/achievements .
Go back about 10 years , but keep in only stuff that is relevent to the position you are applying for.
2-3 pages in the norm, but make your biggest impression on the first page ie transferable skills..what you can bring to this employer.
Steve

newkiwi

Im in New Zealand so maybe its not exactly the same here, but the feedback seems to be that CVs here are longer and more detailed, 4-5 pages long. Put in a little more text describing what you did, and also, if relevant, a bit about the type of company you worked for, as the Aussie Employer may not have an appreciation for the area you worked in/ scope of project/ client organisations you served etc. Take a little more time explaining the who's, where's and how's seem to be a consistent message. and also be prepared to have references lined up...

mlbonner

Hi Neil,

I used my English CV to successful get an Aussie job, however, the Aussie resumes that I have seen do tend to be much longer and more 'wordy'. Have a look at www.seek.com.au and www.hays.com.au as both have guidance on how to create an Aussie resume.

cutgrass

Although my experience is firmly in the IT management sector it's probably worth sharing.

Australian CV's are MUCH longer than UK CV's. I had a 2 page CV describing 7 years experience, and it turned into a 5 page CV by the time the recruitment agencies had finished with me.

I got a good job, and loads of interest after the re-write in case you were wondering how the new CV fared.

The format was the same though, it is just more acceptable to expand on the content.

katyjoy

Its funny this topic should come up as i have been wondering the same and was about to post. I am a trained primary school teacher and i have so far NOT scored any job offers.

Any teachers out there from the UK that can help me sort my CV so that i can get the job i so desperatly need?????? Any help would be VERY much appreciated (as i have applied for over a dozen jobs).

Kate

wongstonn

Thanks for the replies. I'd been hearing rumours of CVs being very different, so this is very helpful.

Neil

Hels

I'm Australian and when I moved to the UK 4 yrs ago, I used my Australian resume and got a job right away. When I moved back to Australia in October, used the very same resume and got the 2nd job I got an interview for.

Personally, I dont think its all that different in either country. Employers still want to know what you have done and what you can bring to their company. If you tell them that with as much detail as you can in the most concise way you can, then thats all they want. I believe that tailoring the resume to suit the job you are applying for is important and researching the company you are applying to, even more so. If you can include something about them in your covering letter or something to show you have researched them, it goes along way.

Good luck

Hels