What say the font of aussie mefi knowledge?

March 7, 2013 10:00 PM

I have been asked to submit my CV/resume to an Australian based management consulting firm to potentially do some project based work with them. What is the acceptable length, format and font to use for a CV/resumes in this industry?
posted by MT to work & money (4 answers total)

All the searching I've done on writing CVs/Resumes (I'm Aussie) has been pretty standard across the board. I'm fairly sure whatever you have now will be perfect. Plus they will know you are from O/S anyway.

Not more than a few pages, less is better.
Stay away from the usual dreaded formats.
Use a readable font.

Here are some Aussie career sites which will have guides.

Seek
Career One
posted by Youremyworld at 10:24 PM on March 7

Up to one page cover letter.
Up to two page resume.
posted by trialex at 12:02 AM on March 8

Make sure your resume is on A4 paper, as converting from letter or other size is annoying when it's printed. PDF is a good idea too.

Check that you have used Aussie (UK/Canadian) spelling - add extra U's to words like "colour", and exchange Z's for S's in "capitalize" etc.

If you have qualifications that might be hard to understand here (we don't really have college equivalents), spell them out.

In terms for formatting (I've worked for a Project Management/Environmental Consulting Company in document design), seriffed fonts are still considered the go, because of the supposed increase ease in reading. So Times New Roman and similar will not jar the eye.

There is no need to include date of birth, marital status, religion or dependents (unless otherwise specified) as our law prevents us discriminating on the basis of these attributes.
posted by b33j at 4:40 AM on March 8 [2 favorites]

I'd emphasize actual skills and experience over qualifications, not only will the degrees most likely be different they may actually be less important.

Based entirely on my own experiences only as an example, I worked for 20 years as a bookkeeper in Australia (among other jobs) never had any problems getting work even though I had no formal qualifications except the experience I got working my way up the accounts department food chains in various large companies. I moved to the US and all people want to know here is what college you went to and what degrees you have, the emphasizes are different so you might want to slant your resume that way.

Keep your resume short. 2 pages maximum. Most of the usualy resume advice is pretty much the same. No crazy fonts, personalise it to the job you're after. Oh and don't include a photo, I know some people here in the US that do that, you don't have to do that in Australia and would be thought a little weird, that ties into the anti discrimination laws b33j mentioned too.
posted by wwax at 11:37 AM on March 8