Starting out

Looking for a first job costs money you may not have, and a lot of advice written for people starting out skips that. This shelf does not.

Do not rely on recruitment agencies as your only route into a first job. Many entry-level jobs are filled directly, or through channels that handle a lot of applicants, like a job portal, a shop door or a WhatsApp group. Some agencies do specialise in junior, temporary and volume recruitment. The articles here are about where to spend your transport money and your data so that it buys you something.

Start with getting your first job when you have no experience. It covers what employers may mean when an advert asks for one to two years, which of the work you have already done counts and how to write it up, which sectors train people from scratch, and where to apply without using data. It also puts a number on what looking for work costs, with the source and the date.

Then learnership, internship or apprenticeship: which is which. Adverts use those words as though they meant the same thing. Learnerships and apprenticeships are defined in the Skills Development Act. The Act does not define an internship the same way, but the 2018 workplace-based learning regulations made under it do recognise several kinds. A graduate programme is a name employers use, not a legal category. Which one you are in affects whether you are an employee and whether a gazetted minimum allowance applies. It also affects whether you finish with a qualification or a reference letter. The article explains what a SETA does, too, and where applications usually go.

Do not pay anyone to get you a job or a place on a programme. If someone wants money to place you, register you or put you on a shortlist, treat it as a major warning sign. The Employment Services Act generally prohibits charging a work seeker a fee for employment services. There is a narrow transitional exception, which do not pay a recruitment agency to find you work explains. Paying for a course or qualification you choose to study is a separate matter. Certified copies are free at a police station, and the Z83 and SA Youth are free too. If anyone asks you for money for a job, how to tell whether a job advert is real is the next thing to read.