Hi

Can anyone give me any advice/examples about creating my CV for Australian employers?

I've looked on the web and there is a lot of conflicting examples.
I will be looking to target employment where I can get an employer sponsored visa.

The plan is to dish it out as I travel later this year and hope I get contacted once back in the UK.

Thanks in advance.

Richard

What's your occupation? It needs to be on the skilled list to be sponsored.

A good CV is a good CV. There is nothing special that needs doing to your regular CV.

Your plans of dishing out a CV and hoping that employers will come flocking sounds a little hopeful considering 6.5% unemployment levels in Australia. Have you done much research on your occupation?

Use shorter words, ideally five letters or under.

My take is that even if you dish out your (fab) CV, it won't be considered, but just 'filed away' if you're travelling, and you won't be considered unless you're close by i.e. in the country and available to interview, and then work etc...

A CV is a CV is a CV wherever you are in the world - basically the same shite anywhere

Keep it short and sweet and to the point

Good luck

I agree mostly with what has been said through Aussie employers more readily accept longer CVs (especially if chock-full of detailed skills and experience related stuff) and prefer to refer to them as resumes. I also see that the skill and achievement listing style favours sentences that describe where and under what circumstances the skills were acquired and demonstrated and achievements took place. Just bulletising skills in a list leaves prospective employers cold, because lets lets face it, anyone can rattle off a one or two word per item, list. A skills matrix is the dogs bollocks

My CV is 4 pages long, and I back it up with a folder full of certs, testimonies to my genius and photo's of projects I've worked on. If going through an agency though, make it eye catching and make sure what they're looking for stands out. They're notorious for letting good candidates go because they don't read CV's.

A lot of agents (but certainly not all) just electronically scan a CV for keywords - your CV will need to contain the requisite number of keywords for the role, or it will be junked. They won't actually read the CV until it's been through the keyword filter. This often means that good candidates are overlooked because they haven't used the keyword often enough in their CV despite actually having the skills and experience.


S

As someone who has interviewed a lot of people and read a shitload of CVs, they are basically a waste of time and effort, but that's another story

Yes and no. The address to selection criteria is always the first thing I'd look at, then a look through the applicant's resume. Red flags for me are people who 'job hop' every 6 months or so and lack of professional referees, particularly from recent jobs.

Australian employers (probably most employers, I don't know) don't like stuff on your resume such as your hobbies, the number of kids you have, or that you won a prize for Mr/Ms Congenial when you were in secondary school. Keep it relevant, factual and simple. Unless your written English is very good, have someone check your resume and application documents.

Simple bio details

• Name, address, email (date of birth is not required)

Academic/trade/professional qualifications

• Start with most recent, then work back.
• Don't list seminars or short courses unless you believe this is vital to your application.

Employment history

• Begin with the most recent, then work back

Professional achievements

• Only if outstanding and relevant. They don't want to know that you came first in a team building exercise

.

Professional referees

• People who can talk about your abilities and skills against the job requirements or selection criteria - provide their name, company, position and contact details.
• Always ask permission before putting someone down as a referee, and notify them when you have applied for a particular position, including the selection criteria/job description if possible - so that they're prepared if they get a call.
• Written references are generally useless, as are character references.

Thanks everyone.
Who knows it might work!
Will just have to sell myself when I'm out there to people and hope for the best.

Good luck!