A hiring manager's perspective on what American-built resume tools get wrong about the Australian and New Zealand job market — and what actually works.
The same CV scored 49% on one AI tool and 92% on another. That's not the real problem.
If you've tried any of the popular CV checkers — Jobscan, ResumeWorded, Enhancv, MyPerfectResume — you've probably noticed something frustrating. Run your CV through three of them and you'll get three completely different scores. I ran the same CV through seven tools for a colleague last year. The lowest score was 49%. The highest was 92%. The CV didn't change.
That inconsistency is the surface problem. Commentators have written about it for years.
The deeper problem is this: even when a US-built tool gives you a 92% score, it's optimising your CV for an American hiring manager, reading it at an American company, using American software — and you're applying in Sydney, Auckland, or Melbourne.
I've been a hiring manager across Australia, New Zealand, the GCC, and APAC for most of my career. I've sat in rooms where we've passed on candidates who were objectively strong but whose CVs read as culturally off — too American, too promotional, structured in ways that made Australian recruiters switch off in the first ten seconds. And I've been the candidate too, applying in markets where my CV was calibrated wrong.
This article is about the specific, concrete ways US-built CV tools fail Australian candidates — and what actually works when you're hiring, or being hired, in the ANZ market.
Seven ways Australian CVs are different from American ones
Most of what US tools teach you doesn't apply here. Some of what they teach will actively hurt you. Here's what genuinely differs.
1. Length
American resume convention says one page. Even for senior candidates, US tools push you toward the 1-page ideal.
Australia and New Zealand operate differently. The standard for most professional candidates is two pages. Three is acceptable for executives with fifteen-plus years of experience. One-page CVs for experienced hires read as incomplete — as if you're either hiding something or don't understand the expectations of the market.
When I've coached candidates coming from the US, the first change I recommend is expanding to two pages. Use the space. Australian recruiters want detail, not density.
2. Spelling
This is the easiest difference to fix and the most commonly missed.
Australian and New Zealand English uses British spelling conventions. A CV in American English — "optimize," "organization," "analyze," "center," "color" — is a small but persistent signal that you're either not paying attention or you didn't bother to calibrate for the market.
This isn't about grammar pedantry. It's a cultural tell. When I'm reading eighty CVs for a role, American spelling on every page creates a subliminal distance from the candidate. One Australian recruiter told me bluntly: "When I see 'organization,' I think: this person didn't even try."
US CV tools default to American spelling. Some let you toggle to UK English, most don't flag it at all.
3. The personal information problem
In the United States, including a professional photo on your resume is normal in many industries. Marital status, date of birth, and nationality sometimes appear on older resumes, especially from internationally-trained candidates.
In Australia and New Zealand, all of these are discouraged — and including any of them creates real friction.
Australian anti-discrimination law means recruiters actively do not want your photo, your age, or your marital status on the CV. Not because they don't care, but because including it creates a legally awkward paper trail. Some large recruitment agencies have internal policies to discard or anonymise CVs that include photos before they reach the hiring manager.
The effect is binary. A great candidate with a photo on their CV can be silently filtered out by a recruiter who'd otherwise have championed them.
US tools happily accept — and sometimes encourage — photos and personal data. None of them flag to an Australian user: "remove this for the ANZ market."
4. The objective statement (and why it's dead here)
American resumes sometimes still include an "Objective" — a sentence or two at the top stating what the candidate is looking for.
In Australia, an Objective statement reads as dated.
Modern ANZ CVs use a Professional Summary instead: three to four sentences describing what you've done and the commercial outcomes you've delivered. Not what you want.
The difference is tone. "Seeking a role that allows me to grow and leverage my experience..." is a US-style Objective. "Commercial operations leader with 15 years across ANZ and APAC markets, delivering $54M EBITDA improvement at Accor Pacific through procurement and governance transformation..." is what an Australian hiring manager wants to see at the top of the page.
US tools, trained on thousands of American resumes with Objective statements, will sometimes suggest you add one. Don't.
5. The tall poppy problem
This is the one that trips up the most internationally-trained candidates. And it's almost impossible for a US-built tool to get right.
Australia has a cultural phenomenon called tall poppy syndrome. In short: Australians are culturally skeptical of self-promotion. A candidate who writes about themselves in the same tone that's normal on an American LinkedIn profile — "transformative leader," "rockstar performer," "10x results," "revolutionised the business" — reads as arrogant or untrustworthy to an Australian recruiter.
The strongest Australian CVs downplay personality and emphasise specifics. Instead of "Spearheaded innovative transformation initiatives that revolutionised the procurement function," a strong ANZ phrasing would be: "Led procurement redesign across 623 hotels, delivering $54M EBITDA improvement in 18 months."
Same achievement. Completely different tone. The second version is what lands in Australia.
US tools, trained on American self-promotion conventions, will sometimes push you in the wrong direction — adding adjectives and superlatives that make the CV read as louder rather than stronger.
In Australia, louder isn't stronger. Quieter with specifics is stronger.
6. References
In the US, some candidates still include referee names and contact details directly on the CV.
In Australia and New Zealand, this is a mistake. The convention is a single line at the bottom: "Referees available on request."
Including referee details on the CV itself is seen as presumptuous — you're giving out your referees' private contact information to every person who reads your CV, including the many who never speak with you.
I've worked with hiring managers who will quietly bin any CV with full referee details listed. Their reasoning: if you haven't figured out not to put referees on the CV, what else haven't you figured out about our market?
Harsh? Maybe. Real? Yes.
Some US tools will flag a missing references section as a problem. Australian recruiters would flag the presence of references as unprofessional.
7. Bullet density and achievement packing
American resumes often compress into dense, overlapping claims. Each bullet is a performance piece: multi-line, compound, rich with adjectives.
Australian CV convention is lighter. Bullet points are one to two lines each, punchy, achievement-focused. A good ANZ bullet names a specific outcome in fifteen to twenty-five words. It doesn't try to pack three accomplishments into one sentence.
When I see bullets that are five lines long, I know I'm looking at either a US-trained candidate or someone who's used a US CV tool and followed its suggestions.
What happens when a US-calibrated CV lands on an Australian recruiter's desk
Here's the practical effect of all of the above.
When a strong candidate applies with a CV that's been optimised by a US-built tool, the Australian recruiter typically sees:
- American spelling throughout (small but persistent tell)
- A photo at the top (red flag — may be quietly discarded)
- An Objective statement (dated)
- Language that reads as over-claiming ("transformative," "visionary," "disruptive")
- Bullets that feel dense and long
- References listed at the bottom
- A one-page format that looks incomplete for a senior role
Each of these is small. Together, they signal: this candidate doesn't know the market.
And that's separate from any ATS keyword optimisation the tool has done. Your keywords might be perfect. Your match score might be 92%. But a human recruiter, reading the CV before or after the ATS, is picking up dozens of cultural signals that put you at a disadvantage.
The US tool has solved a problem the Australian recruiter isn't trying to solve.
What Australian hiring managers actually look for
Let me name what's on the other side of all this. If you're an Australian candidate — whether you're already here, or applying from overseas — here's what your CV genuinely needs to do.
Land the professional summary in the first 15 seconds. The top third of your CV should tell me what you've done, at what scale, in which industries. No objective, no aspiration — just the commercial shape of your career.
Use specific numbers. Not "managed a team" — "led an 8-person team delivering $4.2M in revenue against a $3.8M target." Australian recruiters are skeptical of claims without numbers behind them. Specificity is credibility.
Structure for two pages, not one. Use the space. A one-page CV for an experienced candidate makes me wonder what's been cut.
Calibrate your language. Read your CV out loud. If any sentence sounds like a LinkedIn influencer post — "passionate," "transformative," "rockstar" — it's wrong for Australia. Replace those words with what you actually did.
Remove the photo, the DOB, the personal details. If you're unsure, err toward less. Australian recruiters want to see your work, not your face.
Make it scannable. Three levels of formatting: name and role at the top, experience in reverse chronological order with clear date ranges right-aligned, education and skills at the bottom. No creative layouts. No columns. No colours.
Drop the Objective. Replace it with a tight Professional Summary that leads with specifics.
Keep the referees off the CV. "Available on request" is all you need.
These aren't preferences. They're the standards. An Australian recruiter reading eighty CVs for a role will spend eight seconds on each in the first pass. The ones that get past that pass are the ones that look and read like Australian CVs.
The uncomfortable truth about scoring tools
Most CV scoring tools — including the ones I've named above — are optimising for a score.
That score is built on keyword matching, formatting compliance, and ATS simulation. None of those things tell you whether your CV works for the Australian market.
You can have a 95% score on a US tool and get silently rejected by an Australian recruiter because your CV has a photo, reads as promotional, and uses American spelling throughout. The tool will tell you you're doing great. The market will tell you otherwise.
This is the gap ANZHire is trying to close.
We don't score CVs on keyword match. We read them the way an Australian hiring manager reads them — because that's the job the CV is actually trying to do. Is the candidate credible for this role in this market? Is the language right for the culture? Are the cultural signals calibrated?
Jobscan is a strong tool for what it is. ResumeWorded gives thoughtful line-by-line feedback. Enhancv helps with design. All of them are built for a market that isn't yours.
If you're applying in Australia or New Zealand, you need a CV checker that knows the market. That's not a marketing line. It's the only thing that matters.
What to do now
If you're applying in ANZ and you've been using US-built tools, here's your seven-minute fix list:
- Fix your spelling. Switch everything to Australian English. "Optimise," "organisation," "analyse," "centre," "colour."
- Remove the photo, DOB, and any personal details.
- Replace the Objective with a Professional Summary that leads with what you've done at what scale.
- Scan your language for superlatives and corporate jargon. Replace with specifics and numbers.
- Expand to two pages if you're an experienced candidate. Use the space for achievements with numbers.
- Remove any referee details. Replace with "Referees available on request."
- Re-read the CV and ask: does this sound like an Australian professional, or a US-trained one?
Most candidates will find three or four things to change. Some will need to rethink the whole document. Either way, the fix takes less time than you think — and the result is a CV that reads to an Australian recruiter the way it's meant to.
If you want the whole CV reviewed by a tool calibrated to the ANZ market — not scored against keyword gaps, but actually read by something that understands what Australian and New Zealand hiring managers look for — that's what we built ANZHire for.
The first analysis is free. anzhire.au
Jack Sarraj is the founder of ANZHire, an AI-powered candidate intelligence platform calibrated to the Australian and New Zealand job market. He has been a hiring manager across ANZ, GCC, and APAC for over twenty years.