This is how to structure a CV in South Africa when applying for a job. A Curriculum Vitae (CV) plays a significant role when hunting for a job in South Africa. Knowing how to structure a resume for your job application gives you an upper hand against your competitor candidates for the job you’re applying for.
Very often South African job seekers think they have all the necessary information to write a perfect CV when they don’t unless they have a well-structured CV.
In this article, we’re going to cover how to structure your resume to get a professional look to entice hiring managers and recruiters.
So, let’s get started.
What Is A CV In South Africa?
What is a CV? A Curriculum Vitae is a Latin word meaning “course of life” and in South Africa, we interchange it with resume. It is a piece of formal documents you submit for a job application that captures your personal information, education history, skills, experience, and knowledge of the job you’re applying to occupy the role being advertised.
This is an important document that foretell the recruiter or the hiring manager that you’re suitable for the role.
Again, since your Curriculum Vitae reveals who you are to the hiring manager, you are to take creating it with care and seriousness since it’s the biggest marketing tool to sell your abilities in your absence to an employer.
What Is a CV Structure?
A CV structure is how you arrange the section of a Curriculum Vitae when writing a CV. The structure of your CV is important because because, you make sure you include the sections where hiring managers pay attention most. A good CV structure also make your resume neat and easy to read as well as helping you to capture the relevant information on your curriculum vitae.
The Two Ways To Structure A CV In South Africa
In a CV structure, there are two methods available to use. These
- Reverse Chronological CV Format
- Skills-based CV Format (also called Functional CV Format)
Here Is How To Structure A CV In South Africa
A good and professional Curriculum Vitae structure should include these sections.
- Contact Information
- Personal Statement
- Professional Experience
- Academic History
- Key Skills and Qualification
- Additional Information
Let’s us take each of the CV structure must have sections one by one and go into details.
1. Contact Information
The first section you don’t want to miss when structuring a CV is your contact information. Although it might seem easy to fill out your contact information, you must get it right.
The contact information section in a resume structure is important because the hiring manager will use to contact you for feedback of your job application. If you miss a word for example in your email address, or a number in your phone number, the hiring manager will not be able to reach you.
So, neatly place your contact information at a designated section CV header at the very top of the your CV.
Your contact information must contain these details:
- Your full name
- Professional title
- Email address
- Phone number
- LinkedIn profile (if you have)
- Home address
Put them in the CV header to make them easily visible as possible.
2. Personal Statement (CV Headline)
In the quest to know how to structure a CV in South Africa, your personal statement also known as CV headline, is the second most important information to not forget when doing your the structure of your resume.
On average, hiring managers or recruiters don’t look at CVs for more than six seconds. This is why you must make a good impression by having an eye-catching information on the top of your CV to get the attention of the hiring manager.
The CV headline, is a short (2-4 sentences) pitch about your professional skills, experience, and expertise which is displays right at the top of your CV.
An example a personal statement look on a CV like this;
“Results-oriented Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineer seeking a challenging position to apply expertise in designing and implementing innovative solutions for complex engineering challenges. Proven track record of success in project management, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration. Adept at utilising cutting-edge technologies to optimise processes and enhance overall efficiency.”
Your CV personal statement must come right after your contact details section.
Again, when structuring a CV, the personal statement must be brief, at most 100 words. You should employ relevant keywords and action words to convince the hiring manager that you’re the suitable candidate for the job role.
Note: You should write your personal statement as a CV Summary if you have years of experience to highlight your best professional achievements.
On the other hand, go for a CV Objective to summarise the skills you have mastered and how well you’ll fit the role if you do not have much professional experience.
3. Professional Experience
In the how to structure a CV in South Africa, one of the things to add to your Resume Structure is your professional experience. In fact, your professional experience section is the most important part of your CV structure.
Since it’s likely the hiring manager will probably read your Curriculum Vitae for about 6-7 seconds, he will want to know your professional experience first, before even looking for your contact details for a feedback of your application .
Therefore, you are advised to make your professional experience right. Here are what you’re to include in your professional experience section.
Job title, company name, dates employed, and achievements and responsibilities.
In describing your professional experience on your CV in South Africa, you should go by this format.
- Start with your most recent or current job
- List your former jobs jobs chronologically descending
- Add the job tittles, the company’s name, and dates you worked at each employement
- Add about 5 bullet points explaining your responsibilities and most stunning achievements
- Quantify whenever possible. Numbers pop
Again, you must be creative, straightforward, convincing when formulating your work professional experience in your CV structure because, it is the first section recruiters or hiring managers like to read.
4. Academic History
Your academic history, or educational history should be included in your CV in a CV structure. You are to add your most major or recent degree in this section.
You should add the education records like your post-secondary education. CVMentor advises South African job seekers in how to structure a resume to limit their education history section of their CV to post-secondary degree.
You are to use high school as your academic history if that’s your highest education degree.
Include degree name ( your degree type), university name, location, and dates you attended the schools at the education history section when structuring your CV.
In doing so, format your CV education section the following way:
- Graduation Year (Enter your expected graduation date if you’re still studying)
- Education Degree (e.g higher certificate, Bachelor’s degree, etc)
- The Institution Name
Remember that, when you’re structuring your resume in South Africa, you should use your high school in the education section only if that is your highest degree so far. Other than that, use your post-secondary education .
5. Key Skills and Qualification
The next section in how to structure a CV in South Africa after the education section is the skills and qualification section. This section on structuring your resume in South Africa should be straightforward.
It is recommended to put in your hard skills and soft skills in this section on a CV structure. CVmentor also advises South African job seekers to include their transferable skills in this section.
Hard Skills are learned skills and measurable abilities. They can be for example knowing a specific code language in bread baking, and they’re directly inline with the job role you’re applying for.
Soft Skills, interchangeably called interpersonal skills. These includes personality traits, career attributes, etc. An example of a soft skill is critical thinking, time managements, communication, etc.
Here is how to format your skills and qualification section on a CV in South Africa.
- Start with listing all the professional skills you have acquired and developed.
- Read the job role carefully to know the skill set you have that matches the role and add them.
- Add only the skills you have that match the job description by the hiring manager or recruiter.
- Include both your hard skills and skills in the skills section when doing a CV structure
Moreover, when you’re listing your skills, consider add the level of experience you have acquired so that the hiring manager or the employer will have an idea about your proficiency and know what to expect from you.
Also, if you are one who have a lot of skills, consider add most relevant one to the job role you’re applying for. You can put them in a subsections and this can help to make your CV structure arranged neatly and easy to navigate.
6. Additional Information
After capturing all the most important things needed on how to structure a CV in South Africa, you can include other nice-to-have information in another section.
In South Africa, example of additional information that can be included are,
- Industry Awards
- Professional Certification and Licenses
- Additional Training
- Language
- Relevant Publications
- Volunteer Work
- Conferences Attended
- Hobbies and Interests
- Professional Affiliation
What’s the Structure of a CV in South Africa?
A South African Curriculum Vitae structure should be short and straight to the point. Usually, South Africa job seekers are expected to add personal information including surname; first names; date and country of birth; identity number; male/female; married/single; state of your health; driver’s licence; address and contact numbers. Educational history, etc when structuring their CV.
What Is the Proper Structure Of A CV?
A proper structured Curriculum Vitae (CV) must include the following in this format.
- Contact Information
- Personal Statement
- Professional Experience
- Academic History
- Key Skills and Qualifications
- Industry Awards
- Professional Certifications
- Publications
- Professional Affiliations
- Conferences Attended
- Additional Training
What Will Make My CV Structure Standout?
In order to make your CV standout among competitor candidates, you should consider the following.
- Avoid spelling mistakes and bad grammar
- Avoid using clichés
- Avoid using incorrect information on your CV
- Use a suitable CV Format
- Don’t make your CV too long
- Capture all the relevant information , skills, achievements, and most recent degree.
When you structure your CV this way, hiring managers will love your application and consider you for the job role.
Read also:
1. How To Write A CV For Job Application In South Africa
2. Best CV Format PDF Samples In South Africa For Job Seekers
3. How To Format A CV In South Africa (9 Pro Tips For Job Seekers