CV basics

A CV is a short account of work you have done and study you have completed. It is not a biography. JobSeek will only use what you enter. Do not add a job, a date, or a skill to "fill the page".

Photo

SA employers usually prefer no photo unless the advert asks for one. Leave the photo off. Every JobSeek design starts that way. Turn it on only when the advert requests a photo.

If you do add one, use a plain head-and-shoulders picture. The app re-saves it and strips the camera data. Do not put the photo in the file name.

Length

• First job, or a learnership or internship: at most two pages.
• Experienced, or a career change: at most three pages.

Shorter is fine. A matriculant with Saturday work and school duties does not need three pages. Cut old duties that the new job will not care about before you shrink the font. Keep the font readable.

What to put at the top

• First name and surname
• Mobile number and email
• City and province
• LinkedIn address, only if the profile is up to date

You do not need a home address. You do not put an identity number on the CV. You do not put date of birth, gender, race, marital status, health, or religion. If a form needs those, it is the employer's form, completed outside JobSeek.

The rest of the page

• Profile. Four to six lines, in your own words, after the template. Say the role, your stage, your real skills, and your highest qualification.
• Skills. Name the tools. "MS Excel" is useful. "Hard worker" is not a skill line.
• Experience. Newest first. Include part-time, volunteer, informal work, and learnerships. A shop, a stall, a church roster, or a family business counts if you describe what you actually did. Use the prompts: what you did, and what improved because of you. Two to six bullets. No bullet you cannot explain in an interview.
• Education. Qualification, institution, year, and NQF level if you know it. Matric is NQF 4. If you did not finish, say how far you got (for example Grade 11) instead of implying that you passed.
• Certificates. Name, who issued it, and the date. Include an expiry date if it expires (first aid, a licence, a professional registration).
• Licence and registrations. Add a driver's code only if you hold it. Add SACE, SANC, HPCSA, PSIRA, SAICA, ECSA, or another body only if you are registered, and use the number they gave you.

Before you send it

• Read it aloud. Check phone numbers, dates, and the spelling of the employer's name.
• The file name should be your name and the role. That is how the download is named.
• Send the PDF unless the advert demands Word. The free plan's PDF is watermarked. Paid plans can download a clean PDF and a Word file while the plan is active.
• For a public-service post, the CV goes with the Z83, under that advert's rules. See DPSA and the Z83.

What not to do

• Do not copy a friend's duties into your CV.
• Do not hide gaps by stretching dates. A gap is ordinary. A false date is a dismissal risk later.
• Do not list every school subject. List the qualification.
• Do not pay anyone who says they must "approve" this CV before an employer will see it.