Getting into FIFO

FIFO resume template and example: the layout that gets read, from the person who screens them

A free FIFO resume template, and a worked example of the top third the screener actually reads.

By The Hiring Desk · Senior HR Professional · October 2026

You can download the free FIFO resume template here (Word, no email needed). It is built around one thing: the first thirty seconds. Here is how to fill it in, with a worked example.

The top third is the whole game

The screener is scanning for four things, in this order. Can you legally do the job and get to the point of hire. Have you got the tickets the ad named. Have you been on a live site. Are you going to be a problem. All four need to be answered in the top third of page one, before your work history starts.

A worked example

Here is the top of a resume for someone with no FIFO experience going for utility and camp roles. The name and details are made up.

SAM [SURNAME] · Utility / Camp Services · Rockingham WA
Point of hire: Perth · Available: any roster, from 1 Nov · Australian citizen · Manual and auto licence
Tickets: White Card · First Aid HLTAID011 (exp 06/27) · Food Safety Supervisor (exp 02/28)
Experience: 3 yrs commercial kitchen, 12-hr shifts, cleaning schedules and chemical handling; 1 yr warehouse with daily pre-start and incident reporting.

Four lines. The screener knows in five seconds that Sam can fly from Perth, has the basics, has done long shifts and knows what a pre-start is. Everything after that is the shortlist read.

How to fill in the rest

Work history: most recent first, one or two lines each, written in site words. Not “general duties”. Say what you actually did: plant spotting, traffic control, manual handling, pre-starts, permits, shutdowns, cleaning to a schedule.

Tickets: in the same order and with the same names as the ad, with expiry dates. If a ticket is in progress, say when it will be done.

Length: two pages is plenty. Nobody reads page three.

File: send it as a PDF unless the ad asks for Word, and name it properly: Sam-Surname-Utility-Resume.pdf, not resume-final-v3.docx.

What to leave out

A photo. Your date of birth. Marital status. A paragraph about being a hardworking team player, because every resume says it and so it says nothing. Hobbies, unless they show something useful like a current first aid role at a sports club. Referees’ details: “available on request” is fine.

If you already have a resume

You probably do not need a new one. You need a screen block at the top of the one you have. Most resumes I read have the right experience hidden in the wrong place. The full list of what gets binned, in order, is in FIFO resume mistakes from the hiring side. And if you want it screened the way a recruiter would, that is the Hiring-Side CV Review.

CV Templates by Role coverCV 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 →

The full playbook, from the hiring side

How to Get Into FIFO (and get asked back): the recruiter's screen, the ticket budget planner, your way in by starting point, the CV and interview, and the unwritten rules of your first swing, plus the Employer Map: 50 places to apply. A$49, opens in any browser, yours forever.

Get the guide · A$49Secure checkout · card or PayPal · instant download

Not sure yet? Read chapter 2 free, no email needed.

Already have a CV and still no callbacks? Send it to the person who would be screening it. The Hiring-Side CV Review: the thirty-second verdict, what is getting it binned, and a rewritten screen block, back within three business days. A$179.

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About the author. The Hiring Desk is a senior HR professional with twenty years in HR across Australian mining and construction, most of it on the hiring side, who still works in the industry, which is why there is a pen name and no surname. Nothing published here is about any one employer; it is how the industry screens, hires and runs sites, from someone still inside it. A FIFO household of her own, onshore and offshore. Author of the The Hiring Desk guides.