Competency Demonstration Report (CDR) is basically a document that determines that whatever skills or knowledge you possess as an engineer meets the Australian standards. Engineers Australia (EA) evaluates your CDRs to decide if you are eligible and fits into the occupational category you are applying for or not. As CDR is considered as a backbone of Australian Skilled Migration application, it becomes quite important to write a fine CDR. The major risk associated with CDR writing is the lack of knowledge or information and a poor write-up that can definitely affect your chance to get an Australian Skilled Migration visa. Here are the most common mistakes committed by engineers:-
• The CPD (Continuing Professional Development) provided to CDR report engineers in Australia should be in a form of a list which is restricted to one A4 page. Many of us often extend this to three pages to comprise all the certifications even though it is mentioned that there is no need to include all the certifications.
• Engineers in Australia requires career episode writing in order to measure how well you have applied your skills and knowledge to the respective occupation.
• Most of the engineers overlook the length of the career episode. According to MSA, the length of each narrative must be from 1000 to 2500 words.
• Engineers often write about the team contribution rather than themselves although, in a career episode, it is necessary to mention what an individual contributes to a project instead of their team contribution.
• Another big mistake in writing a CDR is plagiarism i.e. lack of 100% original report.
To write a good CDR, you can follow these few tips:-
• Make use of Australian English that will show your communication skills to the assessor.
• Choose your career episode carefully to determine the competency elements for which you are applying.
• EA prefers authoritarian writing format for career episodes which should always be written in first person and active voice.
• Try to be as relevant as you can at most of the times otherwise you will lose analysis points.
