Indigenous work experience guide

Work experience is broader than paid employment. For First Nations job seekers, experience can come from volunteering, internships, casual roles, study placements, community leadership, caring responsibilities, cultural work, committee roles, projects and short courses.

Five ways to build experience

• Apply for Indigenous internships if you are studying, recently graduated or exploring a new sector.
• Use Indigenous casual jobs to build paid experience and local references.
• Try Indigenous volunteer jobs when you want community experience or a lower-pressure starting point.
• Look at apprenticeships and traineeships for structured training.
• Use community projects, study assignments and leadership roles as evidence of communication, reliability and problem solving.

How to write experience on your resume

Use simple evidence. List the role or activity, organisation, dates, responsibilities and results. For example: supported community event registration, helped Elders with transport coordination, prepared social media content, mentored younger students, completed a placement, handled customer enquiries or contributed to a research project.

Turn experience into applications

Once you have one or two examples, apply for roles that match the skills you can prove. Search all Indigenous jobs, browse the career hubs and create job alerts for the sectors you want next.

Related guide: First Nations entry-level jobs.