By Natasha Bhandari | Director, SkillzPage
Published: 11 February 2026
Most CV advice online is written by content marketers, not recruiters. The tips sound reasonable like "use action verbs," "quantify achievements," "tailor your CV" but they rarely explain what happens on the other side of the desk when your CV arrives.
At SkillzPage, we've reviewed tens of thousands of CVs over almost 20 years of placing IT, Engineering, Finance, and Executive professionals across South Africa. We know what makes a recruiter pause and pick up the phone, and we know what makes them move on to the next candidate within seconds.
The truth is simpler than most guides suggest. When we open a CV, we're looking for three things in this order: Can this person do the job? Can they prove it? And is this CV clear enough for me to find that proof quickly?
Everything in this guide is built around those three questions. If your CV answers them clearly, it will outperform the vast majority of applications regardless of how it's formatted or which template you use.
Research consistently shows that recruiters spend between 6 and 30 seconds on an initial CV scan. In our experience, the real number depends on volume. When we're working on a role that's attracted 200 applications, the first pass is closer to 10 seconds. When we're headhunting for a specialist position with a shortlist of 15, every CV gets a thorough read.
In that initial scan, here's what we're actually looking at, in order:
Current job title and employer:
This tells us immediately whether you're operating at the right level and in a relevant environment. If you're a Senior Software Developer at a financial services company and we're filling a Senior Software Developer role at a bank, you've already passed the first filter.
Duration at current and previous roles:
We're checking for stability and progression. A pattern of 3-5 year tenures with upward movement signals reliability. Multiple roles lasting under 18 months raises questions, not necessarily dealbreakers, but questions we'll need answered. (For more on this, see our article on job hopping and how employers evaluate short tenures.)
Key technologies, tools, or domain expertise:
For technical roles, this is where we look for specific skills that match the brief. If the client needs someone with AWS and Python experience, we're scanning for those exact terms.
Measurable achievements:
This is where most CVs fail. We'll come back to this in detail.
Education and certifications:
These matter, but they're rarely the deciding factor unless the role has a specific qualification requirement.
The implication is clear: the top third of your CV, your current role, your professional summary, and your most recent achievements carries disproportionate weight. If that section is vague, cluttered, or full of generic language, the rest of your CV may never get read.
These are the phrases we encounter most frequently, and they all share the same fundamental problem: they tell us what you think you are, rather than showing us what you've done. Recruiters don't take self-assessments at face value. We take evidence.
1. "Hardworking" or "strong work ethic"
Every candidate believes they work hard. This phrase adds zero information. Replace it with a specific example of output or commitment.
Instead of: "I am a hardworking professional with a strong work ethic." Write: "Led a server migration project across three data centres, completing two weeks ahead of deadline and reducing downtime by 30%."
2. "Team player"
Collaboration is expected in almost every professional role. Stating it as a trait is meaningless. Show it as an action.
Instead of: "I work well in a team." Write: "Collaborated with a cross-functional team of developers, QA testers, and product owners to deliver a mobile banking application that processed 50,000 transactions in its first month."
3. "Results-oriented" or "results-driven"
If you were genuinely results-driven, you'd show the results. The adjective without evidence actually undermines your credibility.
Instead of: "I am results-oriented and driven." Write: "Increased monthly recurring revenue by 22% over six months by restructuring the client onboarding process and reducing churn from 8% to 3%."
4. "Excellent communication skills"
This is one of the most overused phrases in CV history. Communication skills are demonstrated through the quality of your CV itself, and through specific examples of communication in action.
Instead of: "I have strong communication skills." Write: "Presented a business case for system upgrades to the executive committee, securing R2.4 million in budget approval."
5. "Detail-oriented"
Show the detail. Don't claim the trait.
Instead of: "I pay attention to detail." Write: "Audited and reconciled 120 financial reports quarterly, maintaining a zero-discrepancy record across three consecutive audit cycles."
6. "Self-starter" or "go-getter"
These suggest initiative, but without an example they're empty. The most compelling evidence of initiative is a project you started without being asked.
Instead of: "I am a self-starter who takes initiative." Write: "Identified a recurring inefficiency in the deployment pipeline and independently built an automation tool that reduced release time from 4 hours to 25 minutes, saving approximately R400,000 annually."
7. "Dynamic professional"
This phrase means nothing specific. If you're trying to convey adaptability, describe a situation where you adapted.
Instead of: "I am a dynamic and versatile professional." Write: "Transitioned the development team from waterfall to Agile methodology over a six-month period, resulting in a 40% improvement in sprint delivery rates."
8. "Problem solver"
Every role involves solving problems. The question is which problems, how complex, and what was the outcome.
Instead of: "I am an excellent problem solver." Write: "Diagnosed and resolved a recurring database performance issue that had caused 15 hours of unplanned downtime over the previous quarter, eliminating the problem entirely."
9. "Passionate about [industry]"
Passion is demonstrated through sustained commitment, not self-description. Certifications, conference attendance, side projects, and long tenure in a field all signal genuine passion more effectively than the word itself.
Instead of: "I am passionate about cloud computing and emerging technologies." Write: "Completed AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Administrator, and Cisco CCNA certifications between 2023 and 2025 while maintaining a full-time engineering role."
10. "Responsible for..."
This is not a cliché in the same way as the others, it's a structural habit that weakens your entire CV. "Responsible for" describes a job description. It tells us what you were supposed to do, not what you actually accomplished. Replace it with action verbs that show ownership and outcome.
Instead of: "Responsible for managing a team of software developers." Write: "Led and mentored a team of 10 developers, introducing code review standards that reduced production bugs by 35%."
Before a recruiter reads your CV, there's a reasonable chance it will be processed by an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) first. Research suggests that approximately 75% of CVs submitted online are filtered out by ATS before a human reviewer ever sees them (RecruitMyMom, "ATS-Friendly CV"). In South Africa, ATS adoption is widespread not just among large corporates, but increasingly among mid-sized companies and recruitment agencies.
An ATS works by scanning your CV for specific keywords, job titles, skills, qualifications, and formatting cues. It compares this information against the job description and ranks candidates based on relevance. If your CV doesn't contain the right terms in a format the system can parse, it may be automatically excluded regardless of how qualified you are.
How to ensure your CV passes ATS screening
Use keywords from the job description:
Read the job advertisement carefully and incorporate the exact terms it uses like job titles, technical skills, tools, certifications. If the ad says "project management," use that phrase, not a creative alternative like "initiative coordination." Include both the full term and the acronym where applicable: "Customer Relationship Management (CRM)" rather than just "CRM."
Keep formatting simple:
Avoid tables, text boxes, columns, graphics, images, headers, and footers. ATS software often cannot parse these elements and may skip or misread the content. Use a clean, single-column layout with standard fonts like Arial or Calibri.
Use standard section headings:
Label your sections as "Work Experience," "Education," "Skills," and "Certifications." Creative headings like "My Journey" or "Where I've Added Value" confuse ATS parsers.
Submit in the right format:
Unless the job posting specifies otherwise, submit your CV as a Word document (.docx). While PDFs are visually consistent, older ATS systems can struggle to parse them accurately.
Don't keyword-stuff:
ATS systems are sophisticated enough to detect unnatural repetition. Use relevant terms naturally within context, not crammed into invisible text or repeated artificially.
Based on what we see working consistently in the South African market across IT, Engineering, Finance, and Executive recruitment, here is the structure that performs best:
Professional summary (3-5 sentences):
Open with your current title, years of experience, and core area of expertise. State your most significant achievement or value proposition. Include 2-3 keywords that match the type of role you're targeting. This section replaces the outdated "career objective."
Example: "Senior DevOps Engineer with 8 years' experience in financial services and telecommunications. Specialise in cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure), CI/CD pipeline development, and team leadership. Led a cloud migration programme that reduced hosting costs by R1.2 million annually while improving system uptime to 99.97%."
Work experience (reverse chronological):
List your most recent role first. For each position, include the job title, company name, dates of employment, and 3-5 bullet points describing achievements, not duties. Lead each bullet with an action verb. Quantify wherever possible.
Key skills / technical skills:
List relevant skills in a clean format. For technical roles, categorise them: programming languages, frameworks, platforms, tools, methodologies. This section is critical for ATS keyword matching.
Education and certifications:
Most recent first. Include institution name, qualification, and year completed. Add relevant professional certifications with dates.
References:
In South Africa, it's standard to either include 2-3 referees or state "References available on request." Either approach is acceptable, but be prepared to provide them promptly if asked, along with your three most recent salary slips, which is standard practice in South African recruitment.
The South African job market has its own conventions that differ from international norms. If you're applying for roles locally, these matter:
CV length:
Two to three pages is standard and acceptable in South Africa for experienced professionals. The one-page resume convention common in the US does not apply here. However, anything beyond three pages should be reserved for senior executives or academics with extensive publication lists.
Personal information:
You are not required to include your ID number, marital status, age, gender, religion, or a photograph. South African labour laws prohibit discrimination on these grounds, and including them can actually work against you. Include your name, contact number, email address, and city/province. A LinkedIn profile URL is increasingly expected.
Salary information:
Do not include your current or expected salary on your CV. Salary discussions happen during the recruitment process, and as we explain in our guide to salary negotiations in South Africa, strategic positioning matters more than a number on a page.
Drivers licence:
If the role requires travel or the job advertisement mentions it, include your licence code (e.g., Code B / Code 08). Otherwise, it's optional.
Language proficiency:
South Africa is multilingual, and listing additional languages (isiZulu, Afrikaans, isiXhosa, Sesotho, etc.) can be a genuine differentiator, particularly for client-facing roles.
Notice period:
If you're currently employed, stating your notice period (e.g., "One calendar month notice") is helpful for recruiters assessing timelines.
Replace passive language ("responsible for," "assisted with," "involved in") with verbs that convey ownership and measurable contribution:
For leadership: Led, directed, managed, mentored, coordinated, oversaw, established, built
For achievement: Delivered, achieved, exceeded, completed, secured, earned, won
For improvement: Improved, increased, reduced, optimised, streamlined, accelerated, enhanced, redesigned
For creation: Developed, designed, built, created, launched, implemented, introduced, pioneered
For analysis: Analysed, assessed, evaluated, identified, investigated, diagnosed, forecasted, benchmarked
For communication: Presented, negotiated, facilitated, advised, authored, briefed, influenced, persuaded
The key is to follow the action verb with a specific, measurable outcome. "Managed a team" is a duty. "Managed a team of 12 engineers, delivering a R4 million infrastructure project on time and 8% under budget" is an achievement.
What is the biggest mistake candidates make on their CVs?
From our experience reviewing thousands of CVs, the most damaging mistake is listing job duties instead of achievements. A CV that reads like a job description tells us what you were hired to do not what you actually accomplished. The candidates who get interviews are the ones who can demonstrate measurable impact in every role they've held.
Should I include a professional summary or career objective?
Include a professional summary not a career objective. Career objectives ("Seeking a challenging role where I can grow...") are outdated and self-focused. A professional summary states who you are, what you specialise in, and what value you bring. It should be 3-5 sentences and contain keywords relevant to your target role.
How long should my CV be?
In South Africa, two to three pages is appropriate for professionals with more than five years of experience. Graduates and early-career candidates should aim for one to two pages. The test is relevance every line on your CV should serve a purpose. If it doesn't help the recruiter understand why you're right for the role, remove it.
What file format should I submit my CV in?
Word (.docx) is the safest default unless the job posting specifically requests PDF. Many ATS systems parse Word documents more reliably. If you submit a PDF, ensure it's a text-based PDF (not a scanned image) so the content remains searchable.
Should I include "References available upon request"?
This line is unnecessary employers already know they can request references. Use the space for something more valuable. If you have strong referees who have agreed to be contacted, including their names and contact details directly is more useful. Otherwise, simply leave this section off.
How do I explain gaps in my employment history?
Be honest and brief. If you took time out for study, family responsibilities, health, or travel, state it in a single line with dates. Don't try to hide gaps by omitting dates or restructuring your CV recruiters will notice, and the lack of transparency creates more concern than the gap itself.
Is it worth paying for a professional CV writer?
It depends. A good CV writer can help with structure, language, and ATS optimisation. But no writer can manufacture achievements you don't have. Before spending money on a CV rewrite, invest time in documenting your actual accomplishments with specific numbers and outcomes. That raw material is what makes the difference not the formatting.
At SkillzPage, we work with candidates at every stage, from CV review through to interview preparation and salary negotiation. If you're a professional in IT, AI, Engineering, Finance, Marketing or Executive roles and you're considering your next move, we'd like to hear from you.
Visit www.skillzpage.com or call 010 157 0179.
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Disclaimer: This article provides general career guidance and does not guarantee employment outcomes. CV effectiveness depends on individual circumstances, qualifications, and market conditions.
