India to Australia
Applying for Australian Jobs From India
Indian CVs are written for Indian job portals and IT services recruiters: CTC and notice period up top, projects listed client by client, and a personal profile with father's name and a declaration. Australian employers want a resume built around your own achievements, with referees ready and criteria answered where they are set.
Chanuka Jeewantha
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To apply for Australian jobs from India, rebuild your CV to Australian conventions: remove CTC, expected salary, father's name and the declaration, turn project-by-project IT listings into role-based achievements, add two work-related referees, and write a key selection criteria response where a role sets one. Present ICAI, NBA-accredited engineering degrees or ACS status accurately, and check skills assessment and visa routes on the Department of Home Affairs website.
Overview
Indian professionals compete strongly for Australian roles, especially in technology, healthcare, engineering and accounting, and many already hold internationally recognised qualifications or degrees accredited by India's National Board of Accreditation. The obstacle is usually format, not capability. Indian CV habits come from a different hiring system: CTC-based negotiation upfront, IT services CVs organised around client projects rather than employers, board exam percentages carried for years, and a declaration at the end. Australian readers want a resume organised around what you personally built or led, referees they can call quickly, and, for government, health and many large-employer roles, a written answer to stated selection criteria. The conversion is about restructuring around your own contribution and removing the details that belong to the Indian hiring process.
Convert the CV
From a India CV to a Australian resume.
| Common in India | What Australian employers expect |
|---|---|
| "Current CTC", "Expected CTC" in lakhs and notice period stated at the top of the resume | Remove salary figures entirely. Mention notice period, if useful, in the cover letter rather than the resume header |
| A personal profile with father's name, date of birth, gender, marital status and nationality | Name, city and country, phone with +91, email and LinkedIn only |
| IT services format: Project 1, Project 2, each with client, duration, team size, environment and roles and responsibilities | Organise by employer and role. Summarise the technology stack once, and write achievements that show what you personally built, improved or led across projects |
| Class 10 and Class 12 board percentages listed alongside the degree | Remove once you have a degree and experience. State the degree with institution and CGPA or class as awarded |
| A career objective and a long list of personal strengths | A three to five line profile summary with your level, specialism, evidence and target Australian role |
| "I hereby declare that the above information is true to the best of my knowledge", with place, date and signature | Remove it. Australian resumes carry no declaration, place, date or signature |
| No referees listed, or a bare "references available on request" by default | Two referees who directly supervised your recent work, named with role and current contact details once you have their permission |
| A resume with no response to any employer's stated requirements | A separate key selection criteria or capability response, in STAR format, for any government, health or large-employer role that lists them |
Qualifications
How your qualifications are read.
Indian qualifications are generally familiar to Australian employers, particularly in technology and engineering, but the recognition still has to be stated correctly rather than assumed. CPA Australia has a mutual recognition agreement with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), so state your ICAI membership status and year precisely. Engineering degrees accredited by India's National Board of Accreditation sit within the Washington Accord framework Engineers Australia participates in, but a positive Engineers Australia migration skills assessment is still required for most skilled migration routes; it is not automatic from accreditation alone. IT and software professionals typically go through the ACS migration skills assessment for ICT occupations, evaluated against the Australian Qualifications Framework and relevant work experience. Nurses need a skills assessment through ANMAC and then registration with AHPRA, and doctors go through AHPRA and the Medical Board of Australia's own assessment pathways; both are separate from a general skills assessment and take real time to complete.
Sectors where India candidates commonly compete
- Software engineering, cloud, data and cybersecurity
- IT consulting and business analysis, often with experience serving Australian or global clients
- Nursing, aged care and allied health
- Accounting, audit and financial services
- Engineering and infrastructure
- Mining, resources and construction
Steps
What to do, in order.
- 1
Reorganise around roles, not projects
If you have spent years on client projects at an IT services firm, group them under your employer and title, then pick the four to six outcomes that show the most responsibility. An Australian reader wants your trajectory, not every engagement.
- 2
Remove the Indian process details
CTC, expected salary, notice period, father's name, declaration and signature all belong to Indian hiring processes. Removing them usually recovers close to a page for real evidence.
- 3
Start your skills assessment early if you are pursuing skilled migration
ACS, Engineers Australia, CPA Australia, CA ANZ and ANMAC assessments can take weeks to months, and most skilled migration visas cannot proceed without a positive outcome, so start the process well ahead of when you plan to apply.
- 4
Add referees and check for selection criteria
Where Indian CVs often leave referees off entirely, name two directly once you have their permission, and check every government, health or large-employer job ad for a separate criteria or capability requirement.
- 5
Plan around the time difference
India runs on a single fixed time, UTC+5:30, the same offset as Sri Lanka. Australia spans three time zones and most of it observes daylight saving between October and April, so an Australian business day is roughly two and a half to five and a half hours ahead of Indian time depending on the state. Confirm the specific state and current offset before agreeing to an interview time.
Mistakes
What costs these applications interviews.
- Leaving CTC and expected CTC on the resume, which Australian employers find unusual and which anchors negotiation badly
- Keeping the project-by-project IT services layout that runs to four or five pages with no clear achievements
- Listing Class 10 and 12 percentages years into a career
- Including father's name, date of birth and a signed declaration
- Leaving referees off entirely instead of naming two with permission
- Assuming an NBA-accredited engineering degree alone satisfies Engineers Australia's requirements without a formal assessment
Work rights: orientation only
Indian nationals generally need a visa to work in Australia. Common professional routes include the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) for employer-sponsored positions, and points-tested skilled migration visas such as the Skilled Independent (subclass 189) or Skilled Nominated (subclass 190), which usually require your occupation to sit on a current Home Affairs skilled occupation list and often a positive skills assessment. Criteria and fees change, so check the Department of Home Affairs website directly and use a registered migration agent for anything complex. This is orientation only, not immigration or migration advice.
Official sources
- CPA Australia: Institute of Chartered Accountants of India pathway
- Engineers Australia: Migration skills assessment
- ACS: Migration skills assessment
- ANMAC: Skilled migrants
- AHPRA: International practitioners
- Department of Home Affairs: Skilled occupation list
- Department of Home Affairs: Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189)
Orientation only, not legal or immigration advice. Rules change: always check the official source.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Should I mention my CTC on a resume for Australian jobs?
No, do not put your current or expected CTC on an Australian resume. Australian employers do not expect salary on the resume, and figures in lakhs mean little without context. Salary comes up in the application form or conversation, usually against the advertised Australian salary range. Use the space for evidence of your impact instead.
How do I convert an Indian IT resume into an Australian resume?
Reorganise it by employer and role rather than by client project, summarise the technology stack once, and write four to six achievements per recent role that show what you personally built, improved or led. Remove CTC, notice period, the personal profile block and declaration, add two referees, and keep the resume to two or three pages unless a selection criteria response extends it.
Is my NBA-accredited engineering degree automatically recognised by Engineers Australia?
Not automatically. Indian engineering degrees accredited by the National Board of Accreditation sit within the Washington Accord framework Engineers Australia participates in, which helps the process, but a formal Engineers Australia migration skills assessment is still required for most skilled migration routes. Check the current requirements on the Engineers Australia website for your specific engineering discipline.
Is ICAI recognised by CPA Australia?
Yes, CPA Australia has a mutual recognition agreement with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. State your ICAI membership status and year precisely on your resume, and pair it with specific evidence of the accounting, audit or reporting work you did, since Australian employers weigh the applied experience alongside the credential.
Do I need referees on my Australian resume if my Indian CV never listed any?
Yes, add two referees who directly supervised your recent work, named with their role and current contact details, once you have asked their permission. Indian resumes commonly leave referees off entirely or default to a generic line, but Australian hiring managers are used to moving straight to a reference call once you are shortlisted, so having them ready removes a step from the process.
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