Industry guide
Resumes for construction and trades work in Australia
Site supervisors scan for tickets, licences and whether you have done the work before. Put those facts where they can be found in seconds.
What employers in this field look for first
- Current White Card and any high-risk work licences
- Trade qualification, apprenticeship stage or years on the tools
- Types of sites you have worked on: residential, commercial, civil, mining
- Equipment and plant you are ticketed and experienced to operate
- Reliability: turning up, working to program, following site rules
Put these near the top of your resume
- White Card (Construction Induction) with the state it was issued in
- Driver licence class, and HR or HC if you hold one
- High-risk work licences: EWP, forklift, scaffolding, dogging, rigging
- First aid, CPR and any site-specific inductions
- Availability for shift work, nights or FIFO if that applies to you
Only list tickets, licences and checks you actually hold, with their real expiry dates. An expired ticket listed as current is the fastest way to lose an employer's trust.
Wording that works
Describe the job in the same words a foreman would use. "Formwork on a 12-level residential build, two-person crew" says far more than "delivered construction outcomes".
Where you know real numbers, use them: crew size, site value, metres poured, hours per shift. Where you do not know the number, leave it out rather than guessing.
Casual and labour-hire work counts. List the agency and the sites you were placed on rather than leaving gaps unexplained.