Your First Job: CVs, Interviews and Workplace Rights

The one thing

Employers hire attitude and reliability as much as experience: show that you will turn up, learn and do the work well. Most first-time job seekers worry that they have no experience. But for first jobs, employers know that. What they want to see is someone who is reliable, willing to learn, honest, and able to get on with people. You can show those things before you have ever had a job.

§1.1 explains what employers look for, and §1.2 the skills you already have.

What Employers Look For

When employers hire someone for a first job, most look for:

• Reliability: you arrive on time, every day, and do what you say you will.
• Willingness to learn: you listen, ask questions, and get better.
• Honesty: you tell the truth, own up to mistakes, and can be trusted with money, stock and information.
• Communication: you can speak, listen, read and write clearly enough for the job.
• Teamwork: you get on with people, including people unlike you.
• Basic skills for the job: reading, numbers, using a phone or computer, or a skill you trained in.
• A good attitude: you are polite, positive, and willing to do work that is not exciting.

Qualifications matter too, especially for jobs that need a particular certificate. But between two applicants with similar qualifications, the one who shows these qualities usually wins.

Worked Example 1.1 — Zinhle’s worry

Ms Zinhle Ndlovu, 19, finished matric in Mthatha with good marks in Mathematical Literacy and English. She wants to work and help her mother, but every advert seems to ask for “two years’ experience”. She visits Mr Bongani Khoza, a career guidance officer at the local TVET college, who runs free sessions for school leavers. He asks her what she does every day. She looks after her two younger brothers before school, helps at her aunt’s spaza shop on Saturdays, counting stock and giving change, and sings in her church choir, which practises every Thursday without fail. “You have reliability, honesty with money, teamwork and responsibility,” he tells her. “You just haven’t written them down yet.”

The lesson: Zinhle has more to offer than she thought. The next step is to see it, name it, and show it to employers.

The Skills You Already Have

Everyone has skills, even without a job. Look at:

• School: subjects you did well in; projects; leadership (class representative, sports captain); languages.
• Home: caring for children or older relatives; cooking; budgeting; repairs.
• Community: church, sports, youth groups, volunteering, helping at events.
• Informal work: helping in a family business, a spaza shop, a car wash, hair braiding, tutoring.
• Training: courses, short courses, a TVET programme, online learning.

Then turn each activity into a skill an employer recognises:

• Looked after younger brothers every morning: responsibility, time-keeping, caring.
• Counted stock and gave change at a spaza shop: handling money, honesty, numeracy, customer service.
• Sang in a choir that practises weekly: commitment, teamwork, discipline.
• Organised a school fun day: planning, leadership, communication.
• Fixed phones for friends: technical skill, problem-solving.

Many of these are transferable skills: they are useful in almost any job.

Work Habits and Attitudes

Good work habits can be built before your first job:

• Time-keeping: practise arriving early for everything: classes, appointments, interviews. Plan transport with time to spare.
• Reliability: when you agree to do something, do it, or say early if you cannot.
• Communication: answer messages politely, use proper greetings, and listen without interrupting.
• Presentation: clean, neat clothes suitable for the job; good personal hygiene.
• Phone discipline: put the phone away when someone is speaking to you or when you are working.
• Taking instructions: listen, ask if you are unsure, and follow through.
• Handling mistakes: own up, fix it, and learn.

These habits are what supervisors notice first, and what they mention when they give references.

Your Documents

Have these ready before you apply, in a folder and as clear photographs or scans on your phone or email:

• South African ID (smart card or green book). To prove who you are; employers must confirm your identity.
• Certified copies of your ID and certificates. Many employers ask for them; certified recently (some ask for within the last three months).
• Matric certificate (or statement of results) and any college or course certificates. To prove your qualifications.
• CV. Chapter 3.
• A bank account in your own name. Pay is paid into your own account; never let anyone else receive your pay.
• A tax reference number. Many employers ask for it; you can register with SARS free.
• A phone number and an email address. Employers need to contact you; choose a sensible email address.
• Contact details of two references. Chapter 3.

Certified copies can be made free at most police stations by a commissioner of oaths: take the original and the photocopy. Never pay anyone to “certify” or to “prepare” documents for a job. Keep the originals safe at home. Never hand over your original ID or certificates to an employer or agency, and be careful who you give copies to (Chapter 2).