Home Importer and Exporter Resume template
Importer and Exporter resume template
A clean starting structure with example content grounded in what importer and exporters actually do day to day, not generic filler. Download and replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details.
Which resume format should you use?
Reverse chronological
You have a steady work history. This is the format almost every recruiter and ATS expects by default.
Functional
You're changing fields or have gaps in your employment. Leads with skills rather than a job-by-job timeline.
Combination
You're early career or have worked consistently but for only a few employers. Blends a skills summary with a shorter chronological history.
This template uses the reverse chronological format: the one most importer and exporters should default to, since most Australian recruiters and ATS software expect it.
Professional summary
Importer and exporter with hands-on experience sourcing product from overseas suppliers and moving it through freight, customs and biosecurity without losing sight of landed cost or schedule. Works daily with freight forwarders, customs brokers and overseas agents, and keeps margin, stock and documentation under control across each consignment. Comfortable running the commercial side of a shipment as well as the operational side.
Key skills
- Selling and negotiation with overseas suppliers and buyers
- Supply chain planning and freight coordination
- Regulatory compliance, including customs and biosecurity requirements
- Landed cost and margin analysis
- Inventory management and stock level planning
- Operations management across inbound and outbound consignments
- Supplier and overseas agent relationship management
- Stakeholder management across forwarders, brokers and buyers
- Client relationships and advisory
- CargoWise
- SAP Business One
- NetSuite
- Microsoft Excel
Experience: example bullet points
- Negotiated supply, pricing and delivery terms with overseas suppliers, consolidating orders across fewer shipments and cutting freight costs noticeably on the main product lines.
- Coordinated freight, shipping and customs clearance for inbound consignments, working with freight forwarders and licensed customs brokers to have goods released and delivered within the expected transit window.
- Prepared and checked import and export documentation, including commercial invoices, packing lists and certificates of origin, and confirmed biosecurity import conditions before goods left the origin port.
- Managed sourcing, landed cost and stock levels across a product range, tracking margin line by line so slow-moving stock was identified before it tied up working capital.
- Monitored tariff changes, free trade agreement eligibility and currency movements, adjusting purchase timing and pricing to protect margin rather than absorb a shift.
- Built and maintained relationships with overseas suppliers, customs brokers and local buyers, resolving clearance and delivery problems directly with the parties involved.
Education
There is no single entry path: many people come in through a bachelor degree in international business, commerce or logistics, others complete a diploma or certificate IV in international trade, and a good number start from Year 12 and learn the work on the job with a freight forwarder, customs broker or trading business. Customs broker licensing sits with the Australian Border Force and requires passing the national examination.
Keywords an ATS is likely to scan for
Applicant tracking systems match your resume against terms in the job ad before a person ever sees it. Only include the ones that actually apply to your experience, but if a term below matches something you've done, use the same wording the job ad uses.
- Australian Border Force
- customs broker licensing
- biosecurity import conditions
- BICON
- Integrated Cargo System (ICS)
- Australian Trusted Trader
- Incoterms 2020
- Harmonised System (HS) codes
- tariff classification
- free trade agreements
- certificate of origin
- freight forwarding
- bill of lading
- letter of credit
- CargoWise
- SAP Business One
- NetSuite
Getting past ATS screening
- Match the specific skills, certifications and terms used in the job ad, not just your own wording for the same thing.
- Keep formatting simple: no tables, text boxes, columns, headers/footers or graphics. Parsers frequently drop content placed in these.
- Submit as .docx or PDF unless the job ad specifies otherwise.
- Use standard section headings (Experience, Education, Skills) rather than creative alternatives.
- List your core skills and technical competencies in their own section so a keyword scan can find them instantly.
This is a starting point, not a guarantee of interviews. Tailor every bullet point to your own real experience and the specific job ad.