The South African CV format

Employers in South Africa read a lot of CVs, often on their phones, and often in under a minute each. A clear, familiar format lets them find what they need fast: who you are, what you have done, and how to reach you. This guide shows the format most South African employers and recruiters expect, and why each part is where it is.

Use a reverse-chronological CV

"Reverse-chronological" means your most recent job comes first, then the one before it, and so on. It is the standard format in South Africa because it puts your latest, most relevant experience at the top.

You may see "skills-based" or "functional" CVs recommended online. They hide dates and group your skills instead. Recruiters are often suspicious of them because they can look like you are hiding gaps. Stick to reverse-chronological, even if you have little experience. A CV with no experience still follows this order; your education and school activities simply do more of the work.

The order of sections

Use these sections, in this order:

1. Contact details: full name, cell number, email address, and your suburb or town with the province
2. Profile: two or three sentences about who you are and the job you want
3. Work experience: most recent first, with job title, employer, town, start and end month, and two to four bullets each
4. Education: highest qualification first, down to matric
5. Skills: practical and people skills that match the job advert
6. Languages: each language, and how well you speak, read and write it
7. Driver's licence and certificates: licence code, PrDP, first aid, registrations such as PSIRA or SANC
8. References: two or three people with their job title, company and cell number

If you are a school leaver, move Education above Work experience, because your matric results are your strongest point.

A sample layout

This is what the top of a well-formatted South African CV looks like in plain text:

SIPHO DLAMINI
071 234 5678 | sipho.dlamini@gmail.com | Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal

PROFILE
Reliable general worker with four years in a busy distribution centre.
Forklift licence (counterbalance and reach truck), strong safety record.
Looking for a permanent warehouse post in Durban or Pinetown.

WORK EXPERIENCE
Warehouse Assistant, Coastal Distributors, Pinetown
March 2022 to present
- Loaded and offloaded up to 12 trucks a shift, checking stock against delivery notes
- Operated a counterbalance forklift with no incidents in three years
- Helped with month-end stock counts, keeping variances under 1%

See full examples for dozens of jobs in our CV examples, such as the general worker and admin clerk CVs.

How long should a CV be?

• School leaver or first job: one page
• A few years of work: one to two pages
• Long career or professional roles: two pages, three at most

Two full pages is better than two and a bit. If your CV spills onto a third page by a few lines, cut older jobs down to one line each, or remove jobs from more than 10 to 15 years ago unless they matter for the post.

Government posts are different. The advert usually asks for a "detailed" or "comprehensive" CV with the Z83 form, so give full dates and duties for every job. Read our guide to government job applications and the Z83 form.

Layout rules that help you get read

Many larger companies and recruitment agencies use software to sort CVs before a person reads them. This is called an ATS (applicant tracking system). It reads your CV as plain text, so a fancy layout can scramble it.

• Use one column. Two-column layouts are often read in the wrong order.
• Use a normal font, such as Arial or Calibri, at size 10 to 12 for body text.
• Use simple headings ("Work experience", "Education") that the software recognises.
• Do not put important details in tables, text boxes, headers, footers or pictures.
• Do not use star ratings or bars for skills. "Excel: intermediate" says more than three stars.

All of our free CV templates follow these rules.

Writing dates

Give the month and year for every job, for example "March 2022 to June 2024". Use the same style all the way down. Years alone ("2022 to 2024") can look like you are hiding a gap.

If you have a gap of more than a few months, give it one honest line, such as "Caring for a family member", "Studying towards N4 Business Management" or "Job seeking; EPWP road maintenance project". Employers in South Africa understand that work is hard to find. An unexplained gap raises more questions than an explained one.

Personal details: less is more

Older South African CVs open with a long "personal details" section. You do not need it. Leave off your ID number, date of birth, marital status, race, gender, religion, health and a photo. These details do not show whether you can do the job, and they put you at risk of identity fraud once your CV is forwarded around. Our guide to what to put on a South African CV explains why, and how this fits with POPIA.

Two exceptions are worth adding:

• Citizenship or work permit, if you are not a South African citizen, because the employer must check that you may work here. One line is enough, such as "Permanent resident" or "Valid critical skills work visa until 2028".
• Where you live and whether you have transport, because employers want to know you can get to work on time, especially for early shifts.

References

South African employers really do phone references, often before an interview. Give two or three people who supervised or taught you, with:

• Name and job title
• Company or school
• Cell number (and email, if they use it)

Ask them first, and tell them what job you applied for. Avoid "references available on request": it adds a step for the employer and wastes space you could use for something else.

Saving and sending your CV

• Save it as a PDF so the layout looks the same on every phone and computer. Send a Word file only if the advert asks for one.
• Name the file properly, for example "Sipho-Dlamini-CV.pdf", not "CV final 3.pdf".
• By email, put the job title and reference number in the subject line, and write two or three lines in the body saying which job you are applying for.
• On WhatsApp, send the PDF itself rather than a photo of a printed CV. Photos are hard to read and impossible for software to search.

CV or resume?

In South Africa the document is called a CV (curriculum vitae). "Resume" is the American word for much the same thing. If an advert asks for a resume, send your CV.

Build your CV in this format

Our builder lays out your CV in this format for you, in one of three simple designs. Answer a few questions on your phone, or upload your old CV and we fill in the new one from it. Building and previewing it is free.