Eight FIFO resume mistakes that get you binned, in the order the recruiter hits them

Nobody rings to tell you why your CV got binned. You get silence, or a form email, and you assume it was experience. Usually it was not. After twenty years in HR across Australian mining and construction, most of it on the hiring side, here are the eight things that actually cost people the call, in the order a screener hits them going down page one.

1. The personal statement at the top

"Hardworking, reliable team player seeking a new challenge in the mining industry." Every CV says it. It tells me nothing, it takes up the most valuable space on the page, and it pushes your tickets below the fold. Delete it. Put your screen block there instead: role, point of hire, availability, tickets, site experience.

2. No point of hire, no availability

The ad says FIFO ex Perth, 2/1. If your CV does not say where you fly from and that you can do the roster, the screener has to guess, and screeners do not guess. They move to the next CV that answered the question. One line fixes this.

3. Tickets without expiry dates, or on page two

Working at Heights expires. Confined Space expires. First Aid expires. A ticket with no date is a ticket I have to assume might be expired, and a ticket on page two is a ticket I never saw. Top third, with dates, in the order the ad lists them.

4. Site work described in office words

"General duties as required." "Assisted the team with various tasks." "Responsible for day-to-day operations." I have seen eight years of live civil work, trenching, confined space entry, traffic management and plant spotting, described exactly like that. The screener is scanning for site, shutdown, pre-start, permit, plant, roster. If those words are not there, your experience is not there.

5. Six pages

Two. Three if you are a tradie with twenty years of shutdowns. Nobody is reading page four, and a long CV reads as someone who cannot tell what matters, which on a site is not a small thing.

6. The apprenticeship in more detail than the current job

Chronological from 2009 means the screener reads your TAFE years first and your relevant work last. Flip it. Most recent and most relevant at the top, and the early stuff compressed to a line each.

7. The photo, the joke email, the gaps

A photo tells me you do not know Australian norms. An email address with a nickname in it tells me you have not thought about how this lands. A two-year gap with no word about it tells me there is a story, and I will assume the worst version because I do not have time to ask. One line on each gap: "2023, carer for a family member", "2022, travelling". Done.

8. Applying to the wrong ad with the right CV

This is the one no amount of formatting fixes. If the ad wants two years in a processing plant and you have none, the CV is not the problem. The target is. A good CV aimed at the wrong role still gets binned, and you will keep thinking it is the CV. I wrote about picking the right door in how to get a FIFO job with no experience and labour hire versus applying direct.

What this looks like fixed

A two-page CV with a screen block at the top that answers the four questions the scan asks, site experience in site words, tickets with dates, gaps explained in a line, and a target role the CV was built for. That is it. It is not clever. It is just what the person reading it needs to see in the order they look.

If you want that done to your CV by the person who would be screening it, with the bin list written down and the screen block rewritten, that is the Hiring-Side CV Review. If you would rather do it yourself, the free template has the block laid out and the guide walks through it.

Read next: Free FIFO resume template and worked example

CV Templates by Role · A$24Ten Word templates for FIFO and construction roles, laid out the way a screener reads, each with a worked example and the words from the ads.Get them →

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