Do not pay a recruitment agency to find you work
Do not pay to get a job. What the Employment Services Act says about fees, who pays an agency instead, and where to report one that asks you.
7 min read
Advice from the recruitment desk
Written from the agency side of the table, for the South African market: the CCMA, the BCEA, learnerships, what a consultant actually does with your application. Checked against the Acts rather than copied from other job sites.
Getting your first job when you have no experience
Research puts the cost of looking for work at R1 469 a month. What employers mean by experience, which doors are open, and where to apply without data.
11 min read
Your CV
CVs, cover letters and online profiles: what a South African recruiter actually sees in the first thirty seconds, and what to leave out.
How to write a CV for a South African job
The order a consultant commonly reads a CV in, and why a two-column layout can come out scrambled by a parser before a person sees it.
11 min read
What to leave off your CV in South Africa
What to cut from a South African CV, how to check who is asking before you send documents, and how to ask an agency to remove your CV.
7 min read
Interviews
Interviews, assessments, references and the offer at the end of them: how to prepare, what gets asked, and what happens after you say yes.
What SA interviewers actually ask, and why
Many interview questions carry a second question, and that one is often what gets scored. Here is what South African interviewers tend to check.
11 min read
Pay
Salaries, cost to company, negotiating an offer, reading a payslip and the tax basics every South African employee should know.
What to say when they ask your salary expectations
Why the question gets asked, what can happen if you refuse, whether a payslip request is legal in South Africa, and how to build a number you can defend.
11 min read
What "CTC" means on a South African job advert
Two people on R420 000 cost to company, R3 778 a month apart in the bank. A worked example in rands at 2027 tax year rates, and what to ask first.
10 min read
Your rights
The BCEA, the LRA, UIF, the CCMA, POPIA, contracts and notice. These are the parts of South African labour law that come up most often.
How much notice do you have to give in South Africa?
The Act asks for one, two or four weeks, and your contract cannot ask more notice of you than of your employer. The sections, quoted.
11 min read
UIF, what you can claim and what you can't
An ordinary resignation does not qualify. The four reasons that do, the credit rule that changed twice, and the arithmetic.
10 min read
Starting out
Matric, learnerships, SETAs, the YES programme, government posts and first jobs: how to start when you have no work history yet.
Learnership, internship or apprenticeship: which is which
Learnership, internship, apprenticeship, graduate programme. Adverts use all four as one thing; the law does not. What each pays and leaves you with.
12 min read
Job hunting
How agencies work, what to do about ghosting, how to spot a scam, which sectors are hiring, and going remote or abroad.
How to tell whether a job advert is real
The fee test, six signs of a trustworthy advert, and six dated South African scams, most of them run under a real employer's name.
12 min read
What actually happens to your CV inside a recruitment agency
How an application commonly moves through a recruitment agency: the first scan, the screening questions, the shortlist, and where applications stall.
9 min read
From the recruiter's desk
Written from the agency side of the table, plainly: how a shortlist gets made, why an application goes quiet, and what actually changes a consultant's mind.
Do not pay a recruitment agency to find you work
Do not pay to get a job. What the Employment Services Act says about fees, who pays an agency instead, and where to report one that asks you.
Job hunting7 min read
What to say when they ask your salary expectations
Why the question gets asked, what can happen if you refuse, whether a payslip request is legal in South Africa, and how to build a number you can defend.
Pay11 min read
What actually happens to your CV inside a recruitment agency
How an application commonly moves through a recruitment agency: the first scan, the screening questions, the shortlist, and where applications stall.
Job hunting9 min read
Browse by topic
Your CV
CVs, cover letters and online profiles: what a South African recruiter actually sees in the first thirty seconds, and what to leave out.
Interviews
Interviews, assessments, references and the offer at the end of them: how to prepare, what gets asked, and what happens after you say yes.
Pay
Salaries, cost to company, negotiating an offer, reading a payslip and the tax basics every South African employee should know.
Your rights
The BCEA, the LRA, UIF, the CCMA, POPIA, contracts and notice. These are the parts of South African labour law that come up most often.
Starting out
Matric, learnerships, SETAs, the YES programme, government posts and first jobs: how to start when you have no work history yet.
Job hunting
How agencies work, what to do about ghosting, how to spot a scam, which sectors are hiring, and going remote or abroad.