Quote Originally Posted by portlaunay View Post
I had little luck with what I thought was a genuine and well written CV when I arrived but I spent an hour or so with an HR consultant who was very helpful about where I should target my resume and how it should be written.

I echo the bullet points layout and have four basic resume's; one for General management, one for Learning and Development (my area of expertise), one for technical and another for Project Mgt. They all follow the same basic structure but focus on highlighting my R&R's in each of these areas, depending on the type of role I'm going for.

I break down my last two roles in greater detail and bullet the successes of each project, the impact they had on the business and, wherever possible, an indication of budget and ROI. I try to keep this as punchy and interesting as possible, I want it to stick in their minds and interest or intrigue them and then at interview I can expand on each of the points using S.T.A.R; Situation, Task, Action, Result.

I don't usually give any more than job titles and dates for previous roles and I only include my highest qualification attained rather than an educational history, particularly as Aussie's are unlikely to give a **** that you went to Gordonstoun or Eton.

What field are you working in as it may help for more specific feedback.

I think the main thing is, don't BS. The HR consultant told me that there is an expectation that CV's received from overseas are likely to contain a large amount of it and they will check and will grill you at interview. One of the mining firms here gave me some very tough interviews, the toughest I've had and they were brilliant, I really enjoyed them as I was well prepared.

Good luck.
Cheers Portlauney, loads of great advice in your post, my and my hubbies experience is in community work and counselling which I feel is always a wee bit harder to show achievements in than other careers but I can still pick out what is relevant and probably need to sell myself a bit stronger than would be my tendency to - (a bit too used to the application form process in my field and have never ever sent a CV to an employer!). All this advice will help though so thanks to all again cheers Clare