The work experience section decides most applications. It is where an employer looks first, spends the most time, and forms the judgment that gets you called or passed over. This page gives you a template for that section specifically, along with the guidance to fill it in so each entry earns its space.
The Template for One Role
Use this structure for every position, most recent first.
- Job title, as it would be recognised outside the company.
- Employer name and city.
- Dates, month and year to month and year.
- A scope line describing the employer and your remit.
- Four to six duty bullets for recent roles, two or three for older ones.
- One or two achievement bullets where you have them.
The Scope Line
This single line is the most underused element of a South African CV. It sits under the job title and tells the reader the size and nature of what you handled, which no amount of duty bullets conveys as efficiently.
- Warehouse: distribution centre handling around four hundred outbound orders daily.
- Office: professional services firm of thirty-five staff across two floors.
- Healthcare: thirty-two bed surgical ward in a private hospital group.
- Retail: high-volume store with an average of eighty transactions per hour at peak.
- Practice: three-practitioner general practice seeing around seventy patients daily.
Without it, a reader cannot tell whether you supported five people or five hundred, and they will assume the smaller number.
Writing the Duty Bullets
Each bullet is an action verb, the work, then scope or outcome. Most CVs stop at the first two, which is why most CVs read the same.
The Three Levels
- Level one, the activity alone: processed invoices. Tells the reader nothing they did not assume from the job title.
- Level two, activity plus scope: processed around two hundred supplier invoices monthly on Sage. Now they can picture the work.
- Level three, activity plus outcome: processed supplier invoices and identified duplicate payments, recovering the amounts through improved matching checks. Now they can see the value.
Aim for level two throughout and level three where you honestly can. Not every duty has an outcome, and inventing one is worse than leaving it at level two.
Achievements Versus Duties
Duties are what the job required. Achievements are what you did with it that the next person might not have. Keeping them distinct strengthens both.
- Duty: conducted daily cycle counts. Achievement: improved stock accuracy from 94 to above 99 percent through a restructured count programme.
- Duty: managed the shared inbox. Achievement: introduced a triage system that reduced average response time to under four hours.
- Duty: supervised the picking team. Achievement: reduced picking errors through targeted retraining and pick face redesign.
- Duty: maintained filing systems. Achievement: reorganised a backlogged filing structure, cutting document retrieval time.
One or two achievement bullets per recent role is enough. If you have none, that is not a failing; solid level-two duties are better than a manufactured achievement.
How Far Back to Go
Cover roughly the last ten years in detail. Older positions can be compressed to title, employer and dates, or grouped under a single earlier career heading. Nobody needs four bullets about a job you left fifteen years ago.
Include every role in the period, even short ones. Gaps invite worse assumptions than a three-month contract does, and unexplained gaps are asked about at interview anyway.
Handling Difficult Situations
Employment Gaps
State the reason briefly and factually, such as retrenchment, study, caregiving or illness, and move on. A one-line explanation closes the question. Leaving it blank does not.
Short Tenures
Include them, particularly if they were contracts or temporary assignments, and label them as such. A six-month contract labelled contract reads entirely differently from a six-month job that looks abandoned.
Multiple Roles at One Employer
List the employer once, then the roles beneath it with their own dates. This shows progression clearly rather than making it look like several separate jobs.
Currently Unemployed
End your most recent role with the actual end date and address it in your summary or cover letter. Do not stretch dates to appear currently employed, since reference checks confirm them.
Tailoring to Each Advert
Reorder your bullets so the ones matching the advert appear first within each role. You are not changing the content, only the order, and the reader forms an impression from the first two bullets far more than the last.
Mirror the advert’s terminology where it honestly describes what you did, since recruiters search on those exact terms. For duty wording by role, see Work Experience Duties for CV.
Mistakes to Avoid
- Starting every bullet with responsible for, which describes the job rather than your work.
- Omitting the scope line, leaving the reader to assume the smallest plausible scale.
- Listing every task instead of selecting the strongest four to six.
- Writing the same bullets for several roles, which hides any progression.
- Leaving gaps unexplained.
- Copying the job advert so the entry describes the role rather than your experience.
- Quoting figures you cannot discuss in detail at interview.
- Going into detail on roles from more than ten years ago.
FAQs
What should a CV work experience template include?
Job title, employer and city, dates, a scope line describing the size and nature of the work, four to six duty bullets for recent roles, and one or two achievement bullets where you have them. The scope line is the most commonly omitted and most useful element.
How many bullet points per job?
Four to six for your most recent role, two or three for older ones, and title with dates only for anything beyond about ten years. Select the bullets that match the advert rather than listing everything the job involved.
How far back should my work experience go?
Roughly ten years in detail. Compress older roles to title, employer and dates, or group them under an earlier career heading. Include every role within the detailed period, since gaps raise more questions than short jobs do.
What is the difference between duties and achievements?
Duties are what the role required of anyone doing it. Achievements are what you specifically did with it, usually something measurable such as an accuracy improvement or a process you introduced. One or two achievements per recent role is enough, and none is better than an invented one.
How do I explain an employment gap?
State the reason briefly and factually, such as retrenchment, study, caregiving or illness. A single line closes the question. Leaving the gap unexplained invites worse assumptions and will be asked about at interview regardless.