Free advice, no catch

Tips that get you a call back

Written for South Africa, by people who have read a lot of CVs.

No experience yet? You still have a CV

Nobody is born with experience. The mistake is leaving the page half empty and hoping nobody notices. Fill it with what you have actually done, because more of it counts than you think.

  • School. Your matric subjects, your best marks, being a prefect or class rep, RCL, sport, debating, the choir.
  • Home and community. Helping in a family spaza or salon, church work, coaching kids, fixing phones, selling anything to anyone.
  • Short courses. Anything you finished, even a free online one. First aid, a computer course at the library, a learner licence.
  • Volunteering. A few Saturdays counts if you can say what you did and who saw you do it.

Then change the order

Put three short lines at the top saying who you are and what you are looking for. Then put Skills above Education, and leave Work Experience off completely rather than showing an empty heading. In this app, choose No work experience yet on the work step and the layout changes for you.

One page is plenty. Two only if you have the work to fill it.

The 6 things SA recruiters look for

A person deciding on your CV gives it about twenty seconds. This is what they are hunting for in that time.

  1. A phone number that worksPut it at the top. Make sure it is on WhatsApp and that your voicemail is not full. More people miss out on a job because nobody could reach them than for any other reason.
  2. Where you live and how you would get therePut your suburb or township and your city. If you have your own transport or a licence, say so on the first page. It answers the question they were about to ask.
  3. Your highest qualification and the yearGrade 12 in 2024, or Grade 11 if that is where you stopped. Say it plainly. Hiding it reads worse than not having it.
  4. The exact thing the advert asked forIf the ad says Code 10, PDP, Grade 12, or Microsoft Excel, use those same words. Many employers filter before a human ever reads it.
  5. Proof, not adjectivesAnyone can type hardworking. Say you opened the shop alone on Saturdays for a year, or that you handled cash without a shortfall. Numbers and dates that line up beat adjectives every time.
  6. References who will actually answerTwo is enough. Ask them first, check the number, and warn them that a call is coming. A dead reference number costs you the job at the last step.

How to apply on SA Youth and on company sites

SA Youth

SA Youth is the government backed network for young people looking for work, at sayouth.mobi. It is data free on the big South African networks, so browsing it costs you no airtime. It is for young people aged roughly 15 to 34, you register once with your ID number, and it is free from start to finish.

  1. Register once, properlyReal ID number, real phone number, correct province. Opportunities are matched by where you are.
  2. Keep your number currentIf you change SIM, go back and update it that same week. That number is how the work reaches you.
  3. Say yes quicklyPlacements close fast. Check twice a week and reply the day you are contacted.
  4. Never pay for a placeSA Youth registration is free. Anyone asking you for money to sign you up is stealing from you.

Company career pages

The big South African retailers, banks and mines all take applications on their own sites. Applying there directly beats forwarding your CV around a WhatsApp group.

  1. Use an email you can actually openSomething plain, like your name and a number. Not a nickname.
  2. Send one PDF, named like a personSipho Dlamini CV.pdf. Not a photo of a printed page, and not five separate images.
  3. Answer every screening questionSkipping the boring ones is what knocks most applications out before a person sees them.
  4. Keep the reference numberScreenshot it. Follow up once after two weeks, politely, and then leave it.
Sending on WhatsApp? Send the PDF file, not a photo of the paper. Photos look careless and often cannot be read.

Already on SA Youth?

SA Youth has the opportunities, but it never hands you a CV file you own. Build yours here, then copy your answers straight into their profile.

It is free and zero rated, so browsing it costs you no data. Registering there is worth doing. This just saves you typing it all again.

Your CV answers, grouped the way their profile asks for them:

  • Personal details
  • Where you live
  • Highest education
  • Work experience
  • Skills
  • Availability
Build my CV first Go to sayouth.mobi
Your details stay on this phone. We send nothing to SA Youth for you.

Preparing for the video question

More employers now send a link and ask you to record yourself answering a question or two on your phone. There is no live person on the other side, which makes it feel strange. Treat it as a real interview and you are already ahead of most applicants.

  • Light in front, not behind. Face the window. If the window is behind you, you become a shadow.
  • Lean the phone on something. A stack of books at eye level. No shaky hands, no looking up your nose.
  • Find quiet. A plain wall, a closed door, the TV off. Bad sound loses more people than a bad answer.
  • Look at the lens, not at yourself. That is what makes it feel like eye contact.

Answering the question

The one you will almost certainly get is tell us about yourself. It is not asking about your family. It is asking why you fit this job. Aim for sixty to ninety seconds and use three beats: what the situation was, what you did about it, and how it turned out. Say your full name at the start, practise out loud once, then record it properly. Do not read from a page, it is obvious.

Dress the way you would for the actual job. From the waist up is fine, and nobody has ever been marked down for a collar.
Run a group CV drive Your church, your class, your street. One link, one count.

Never pay to apply

If somebody asks you for money to give you a job, it is not a job. It is a robbery with an interview attached, and it is the single most common scam aimed at South Africans looking for work.

The law is on your side. Under the Employment Services Act, a private employment agency may not charge a work seeker a fee for finding them work. The employer pays to fill the post. You never do. Anyone asking you for that money is breaking the law, whatever they call the payment.

How the scam runs

It almost always follows the same shape. A post in a Facebook group or a WhatsApp forward advertises work at a company everyone knows. The reply comes fast, the interview is short and goes suspiciously well, and then the money comes up: a registration fee, an admin fee, a medical, a uniform deposit, a police clearance, a training pack.

The amount is usually between R250 and R500, small enough to feel worth the risk. They ask for an eWallet, a cash send, or a deposit into a personal account, never a company one. Once you pay, the number goes quiet and the job was never there.

The rules that keep you safe

  • A real employer never asks you for money. Not for training, not for a uniform, not for the interview.
  • Real money moves to a registered company account, never to a person's name, an eWallet or a cash send.
  • Your bank details and your ID copy come after a signed written offer, never before.
  • Check the company's own careers page. If the post is not there, phone the company's real switchboard and ask.
  • Pressure is the tell. A real job is still there tomorrow. Pay today or lose it is always a lie.

If you have already paid, you are not stupid and you are not alone. Keep the messages and the proof of payment, open a case at your nearest police station, and report the agency to the Department of Employment and Labour.

CV ZA is free and always will be. We will never ask you for money to apply for anything.