Two pages at most. One if it is your first job. No photo, no date of birth, no big words. Here is what a Kiwi employer expects to see, in what order, with a full example for someone who has never had a job. Then score yours free, or build one from nothing.
Score my CV free → Build one from nothingIf you only read one part of this page, read these four.
Employers skim the first page and decide. Put the strongest things at the top.
Also nationality, your full street address and your IRD number. None of it belongs on a New Zealand CV.
For a first job, school and skills move up. For anyone else, work comes first.
Aroha-Ngata-CV.pdf. A Word file can break on their screen. Send Word only if the ad asks.
Seven sections. Each one has a job to do. If a section is not doing its job, cut it.
Your name in large type. Mobile, email, suburb and city. A LinkedIn link only if the profile is finished. Use an email address that is just your name.
Two or three lines. Who you are, what you are looking for, and what you are like to work with. "Year 13 leaver from Hamilton looking for a first full time role in retail. Reliable, good with people, comfortable with cash and early starts." Not an essay, and no big words.
Six to eight short items, chosen to match the ad. If the ad says customer service, cash handling and teamwork, those three words are in your list. Real skills only: a driver licence is a skill, "passionate" is not.
Most recent first. Job title, employer, town, dates in months and years. Two or three bullet points each, starting with what you did and ending with a result or a number where you have one. Part time, casual, holiday work and paid family business work all count. So does volunteering, in its own section or here.
School, years, highest NCEA level and any endorsement. Any course, even a short one. Then licences and tickets on their own lines: restricted or full driver licence, first aid, food safety, forklift, LCQ, site safe. For entry level roles a licence is often the deciding line, so do not bury it.
Two. Name, role, how they know you, phone number. Ask them first and tell them which job. For a first job a teacher, a coach, a supervisor from volunteering or the family friend you mowed lawns for all count. "Available on request" is acceptable but naming them is stronger.
If you are not a New Zealand citizen or resident, one line: your visa type and that it allows you to work. Employers will ask, and answering first saves a round.
A school leaver in Hamilton applying for retail. Everything on it is something a seventeen year old could truthfully write.
Year 13 leaver looking for a first full time role in retail. Reliable, good with people, comfortable handling cash and starting early. Available immediately, including weekends and evenings.
NCEA Level 2 achieved, Level 3 in progress results due January. Merit endorsement at Level 1.
Mr Tama Reid, Canteen manager, Fraser High School. Supervised my canteen shifts. 021 000 0000
Ms Jo Pryor, Netball coordinator, Fraser High School. Oversaw my coaching. 021 000 0001
Every one of these is easy to fix. None of them are about talent.
Nobody reads page three. If you have under two years of work, one page. Cut the hobbies, cut the primary school, keep the examples.
New Zealand CVs do not carry one. It makes the CV look like it was written for another country, and it invites judgement you do not want.
Not expected, not asked for. Leave them off along with nationality and your full address.
The skills list and the profile should change for each ad. It takes five minutes and it is the difference between matching the job and nearly matching it.
"Responsible for the till" is a duty. "Counted the float every shift and balanced each week" is proof. Numbers wherever you truthfully have them.
A gap is normal. A gap with nothing said makes the reader guess. One line: "2024, caring for family" or "2024, travelling and casual work" closes it.
Two columns, icons and 9 point type look designed and read badly, and application systems cannot parse them. One column, 11 point, clear headings.
Your name, nothing else. Make a new one if you have to. It takes two minutes.
The example above is one answer. Here is where the material comes from.
Your NCEA level and endorsements, subjects that fit the job, a role like prefect, peer support or house captain, a project you saw through.
Years of turning up, being on time and working in a team. Anything you organised or led. Employers read all of it as reliability.
Helping in a family business, marae work, looking after siblings or grandparents, volunteering. Write it like a job: what you did, how often, for how long.
Driver licence, first aid, food safety, forklift. Put the licence in your contact line so it is the first thing seen.
A teacher, a coach, a canteen manager, the neighbour whose lawns you mowed for three summers. Ask them first.
CV Score reads your CV the way a New Zealand employer does and gives it a mark out of 100 with the fixes listed. No CV yet? The free builder asks plain questions and writes a one page NZ CV from your answers.