Your CV is the first thing that goes wrong on a working holiday. You land, you print twenty copies of the CV that worked fine at home, you walk them into cafés and hostels — and nothing comes back. It's usually not your experience. It's that a CV from Germany, France, Italy or the US looks immediately foreign to an Australian or New Zealand employer: too long, a photo at the top, a date of birth, three pages of formatting nobody asked for. Here's what the local version actually looks like, and how to rewrite yours in an afternoon.
Or start from a template that's already right
A professionally designed CV and cover letter template, formatted the way Australian and New Zealand employers expect — no photo, no date of birth, the sections in the right order. Editable in Word or Google Docs, ready to send in minutes. £2.
Get the CV & cover letter template — £2How an Australian or New Zealand CV differs from yours
Most of the work is deleting things — especially if you're coming from continental Europe.
No photo. Not at the top, not in the corner, not a "professional" headshot. It's expected in much of Europe and unwelcome in Australia and New Zealand.
No date of birth or age. Also no gender, no marital status, no nationality, no religion, no photo of your passport. An employer who needs your right-to-work details will ask after they've decided they want you.
One page for casual work. Two if you're chasing a skilled or professional role. The café owner reading it is going through a stack on the counter between coffees.
Reverse chronological. Most recent job first, working backwards. Skills-based or "functional" CVs that hide the dates make employers assume you're covering something up.
A short personal statement at the top. Three or four lines saying who you are, what you're looking for and how long you're around. Not a paragraph of adjectives.
Plain, readable formatting. One clean font, clear headings, decent white space, black on white. Skip the columns, sidebars, skill rating bars and colour blocks — they print badly and half of them confuse the applicant tracking systems the bigger employers use.
The six sections, in the order they belong
This running order is the standard one in both countries. Don't get creative with it.
Contact details. Name, local mobile number, a sensible email address, and the city or suburb you're in — that's it. No full street address, no date of birth, no passport or tax number. Getting a local SIM in your first few days matters more than people expect here: employers hiring for casual shifts will call, and a lot of them won't dial an overseas number.
Personal statement. Three or four lines, tailored to the kind of work you're applying for. Say what you've done, what you're after, and — crucially — your visa and how long you can stay. "Hospitality all-rounder with three years' bar and floor experience in Berlin. Working Holiday Visa holder, eligible to work in Australia until March 2027. Based in Melbourne, available immediately, happy with nights and weekends."
Work experience. Reverse chronological. For each role: job title, employer, city and country, month/year to month/year, then two or three bullet points of what you actually did. Describe the work, not the company — nobody in Christchurch knows what Edeka or Systembolaget is, but everyone understands "supermarket, 400+ customers a day, cash and card handling".
Skills & certificates. The concrete ones. Barista experience and which machine, RSA or RSG certificate, White Card, forklift ticket, food safety training, first aid, driver's licence (and whether it's manual — it matters on farms), languages, and anything trade-specific. This is the section casual employers skim hardest.
Education. Short. Qualification, institution, year. Translate it into something recognisable — an Ausbildung, a BTS or a Matura means nothing locally, so add a plain-English line explaining what it is. Skip your school grades unless you've just left school.
References / referees. In Australia, "References available on request" is the standard sign-off. In New Zealand, name two referees with their role and contact details — see the next section. Ask them first, and give an email as well as a phone number, because of the time difference.
Australia vs New Zealand: the differences that matter
The format is near enough identical. The emphasis isn't.
New Zealand: referees carry real weight
New Zealand hiring runs on references to a degree that surprises people. It's normal to list two referees by name, job title and contact details directly on the CV rather than holding them back, and employers genuinely ring them. "Kiwi experience" is a phrase you'll hear a lot — it's not gatekeeping so much as employers wanting evidence someone local will vouch for you. That's why the first job matters out of proportion to the pay: once one New Zealand employer will take a call about you, the second job is far easier. See our New Zealand jobs guide for where to find that first one.
Australia: certificates and availability
Australian casual employers scan for two things — whether you already hold the ticket the job legally needs, and how much of the roster you can cover. An RSA certificate for anywhere serving alcohol, RSG for gaming venues, a White Card for any construction site: having these before you apply moves you above everyone who hasn't got round to it, and they're cheap and quick to get. Then be explicit about availability, nights, weekends and how long you're staying. Our Australia jobs guide covers which certificates each industry expects.
"CV" or "resume"?
New Zealand says CV, almost without exception. Australia uses both — plenty of ads ask for a resume, plenty ask for a CV, and they mean the same one-or-two-page document either way. It's not the American-style academic distinction, so don't overthink it: mirror whichever word the job ad uses when you reply, and call the file something like Anna-Schmidt-CV.pdf rather than cv_final_v3.pdf.
Spelling and small local tells
Both countries use British spelling — organised, specialised, centre, labour, programme. Set your document language to English (Australia) or English (New Zealand) so autocorrect stops turning it American. Write dates as 12 March 2026, use a local mobile number with no country code, and give money in AUD or NZD if you mention figures at all. Small things, but they're the difference between reading as local and reading as a copy-paste from home.
The working holiday problems, and how to solve them
Every backpacker CV runs into the same four issues. None of them is fatal.
"My visa status"
State it plainly, once, near the top: Working Holiday Visa holder, eligible to work in Australia until March 2027. An employer's very first question about a backpacker is whether they can legally hire you and how long you'll be there, and a CV that answers it in the first five seconds skips the pile that gets binned on suspicion. Include the month you can work until — it's the number that decides whether you're worth training. Check the exact conditions and end date on your own grant letter, and see our Australia visa guide if you're unsure what your subclass allows. Never attach a scan of the grant or your passport to a job application.
"All my jobs are short and overseas"
Group them honestly rather than hiding them. Seasonal and casual work is completely normal in the industries you're applying to — what looks bad is unexplained gaps, not short contracts. If you did four summers in the same restaurant, write it as one entry with the seasons noted. If you genuinely job-hopped, lead each bullet with what you got good at rather than how long you stayed, and let the personal statement frame the trip: someone travelling for a year is expected to have a patchwork.
"I have no local experience"
Nor did anyone else on their first day. Translate what you've got: describe the work instead of naming a chain nobody's heard of, convert currencies and covers into plain numbers, and lead with what transfers — cash handling, customer service, food safety, 5am starts, working outside in heat, working unsupervised, keeping your head in a rush. Then close the gap physically: hand the CV over in person where the industry expects it, because in hospitality and retail a face attached to the paper beats an email every time.
"I don't have an address or a bank account yet"
You don't need either on the CV — city or suburb is enough, and no employer expects a backpacker to have a lease. What you do need before you start applying is a local mobile number and, before your first payday, a local bank account; both are first-week admin. Our banking guide and SIM card guide cover getting them sorted in a couple of days.
What each industry actually looks for
Hospitality. Which coffee machine you've used and how many covers you've handled, RSA/RSG if you're anywhere near alcohol or gaming, and availability for nights and weekends. Put the barista experience above everything else in Melbourne — it's the single most valuable line on a CV there.
Farm & regional work. Physical work history, whether you drive a manual, any machinery or licences, and your start date and how long you'll stay. Farms hire on availability and reliability more than CVs — but a one-page CV with a phone number still beats turning up with nothing. If you're chasing your second-year visa, our farm work & 88 days guide covers what actually counts.
Retail. Customer service, POS and cash handling, stock work, and how many hours a week you want. Say clearly whether you're after full-time or a few shifts — retail managers are building a roster, not a career ladder.
Warehouse, construction & labouring. Tickets first: White Card, forklift, any trade qualification. Then physical work history, shift availability including nights, and whether you have your own transport and steel-caps.
This is the fiddly part — we've done it for you
Getting the structure, spacing and section order right in Word takes an evening and still ends up looking slightly off. Our template is already laid out the AU/NZ way, with the visa line, the skills section and the referees block in the right places — you just type over it. Includes a matching cover letter. £2.
Get the CV & cover letter template — £2Common mistakes backpackers make
Every one of these is something we did ourselves, or watched a hostel full of people do.
Sending the European CV unchanged. Photo, date of birth, marital status, four pages, a Europass template. It's the single most common reason a decent candidate gets no reply.
No local phone number. Casual employers call, they don't email, and most won't dial an international number. A CV with a +49 mobile on it is a CV that doesn't get followed up.
Leaving the visa off entirely. The employer then has to guess whether you're legal and how long you'll last. Most won't bother guessing.
One generic CV, mass-emailed. Thirty identical PDFs to thirty cafés performs worse than eight tailored ones handed over in person. Change the personal statement at minimum.
Referees who can't be reached. An old boss in Europe who doesn't speak English, has no idea you listed them, and is asleep when the call comes is worse than no referee. Ask first, warn them, and give an email address too.
A personal statement made of adjectives. "Passionate, hard-working team player with excellent communication skills" says nothing. What you've done, what you want, and how long you're around says everything.
Putting your tax or ID numbers on it. Your TFN in Australia or IRD number in New Zealand goes to your employer after you're hired, through the proper form — never on a CV you're leaving on twenty counters. Same for passport numbers.
Sending a Word file, or a photo of a printout. Export to PDF so the layout survives, name the file with your actual name, and keep it under a couple of megabytes.
FAQs
The questions we get asked most about CVs for a working holiday.
Should I put a photo on my CV?
No. Photos are standard across much of continental Europe and unwelcome in Australia and New Zealand — employers are wary of anything that could look like a discriminatory hiring decision. Same for date of birth, marital status, nationality and gender.
How long should a backpacker CV be?
One page for casual hospitality, retail, farm and warehouse work. Two if you're going after a skilled or professional role. A one-pager that gets read beats a two-pager that gets abandoned.
Is it a CV or a resume?
New Zealand says CV almost universally. Australia uses both interchangeably. Mirror whichever term the job ad uses — the document is the same either way.
How do I show my working holiday visa?
One line near the top: "Working Holiday Visa holder, eligible to work in Australia until March 2027." It answers the employer's first question immediately. Never attach a scan of your grant letter or passport.
What if I have no local experience yet?
Translate what you have — describe the work rather than the company, use plain numbers, and lead with what transfers: cash handling, customer service, early starts, physical work. Everyone arrives without local experience.
Do I need referees on the CV?
In Australia, "References available on request" is fine. In New Zealand, list two by name, role and contact details — referees genuinely get called there. Ask them first and warn them about the time difference.
The AU/NZ CV & cover letter template
Everything on this page, already built into a document you can type over. Professionally designed, formatted for Australian and New Zealand employers, with the visa line, skills and referees sections laid out correctly — plus a matching cover letter you can adapt per application. Editable in Word or Google Docs, exports clean to PDF, ready to send in minutes. £2, one-off.
Get the CV & cover letter template — £2Once the CV is sorted
The rest of the first-fortnight admin, in the order it actually matters.
Finding work in Australia
Where the jobs actually are by industry and city, what they pay, which certificates you need first, and how the casual hiring process really works.
Read the Australia jobs guide →Finding work in New Zealand
Seasonal work, hospitality and the "Kiwi experience" problem — where to look, when to arrive for the season, and how to land the first job that unlocks the rest.
Read the New Zealand jobs guide →Farm work & 88 days
The specified regional work that earns a second year in Australia — what counts, where to find it, and how to keep the paperwork airtight.
Read the farm work guide →Banking
You can't get paid without a local account. Which banks are backpacker-friendly, what you need to open one, and how Wise or Revolut bridge the gap.
Read the banking guide →