“I can’t apply. I don’t have work experience.”
If you have ever said this, stop right there. Thousands of South African job seekers rule themselves out of entry-level positions every day because they believe work experience only counts if it came with a payslip. It doesn’t.
Employers hiring for entry-level roles are not looking for five years of work experience. They are looking for proof that you can show up, take responsibility, work with people, and get things done. If you have ever helped at a family business, tutored a neighbour’s child, or run your church youth group’s WhatsApp page, you already have that proof. You just haven’t put it on paper yet.
Here are 10 everyday activities that can count as valuable work experience on your CV, along with examples of how to describe them so recruiters take them seriously. If you haven’t created your CV yet, get started with the free Nasi iSpani CV Builder, which guides you through every step directly from your phone.
Why Unpaid Work Still Counts
A recruiter reading your CV wants answers to three questions. Can this person do the work? Will they be reliable? Can they work with others? Paid employment answers those questions, but so does unpaid, informal and community work, as long as you describe it properly.
The trick is to focus on skills and results, not job titles. “Helped my uncle” tells a recruiter nothing. “Managed daily cash sales of R2,000+ and reconciled the till at close of business” tells them everything. That is the difference between work experience that gets ignored and work experience that gets you an interview.
Related: Your CV only Gets 10 Seconds! The Complete Guide to Writing a CV That Gets You Hired 2026
The 10 Everyday Activities That Count as Work Experience:
1. Helping in a Family Business or Spaza Shop
If you have worked behind the counter of a spaza shop, helped at a salon, assisted at a car wash, or done stocktaking for a relative’s business, that is retail and operations experience. You handled cash, served customers, managed stock and dealt with suppliers. Those are the exact skills employers want for retail, cashier and general assistant roles.
How to word it: Sales Assistant (family business), 2023 to 2025. Served 50+ customers daily, handled cash and card payments, managed stock rotation, and opened and closed the shop independently.
2. Volunteering at Church, School or Community Events
Setting up chairs for a church service, serving food at a community kitchen, marshalling at a fun run, or helping organise a school fundraiser all count. Volunteering shows initiative, teamwork and commitment, three things recruiters mention constantly. Formal volunteer programmes carry even more weight. Organisations like Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator actively help young South Africans turn this kind of experience into employment.
How to word it: Volunteer, Community Feeding Scheme, 2024 to present. Prepare and serve meals to 100+ people weekly as part of a team of six volunteers.
3. Babysitting or Childminding
Looking after children, whether for neighbours, family or paying clients, demonstrates responsibility, time management and the ability to stay calm under pressure. It is directly relevant for ECD, care work, hospitality and any customer-facing role.
How to word it: Childminder (private clients), 2022 to 2024. Cared for three children aged 2 to 8, managed meal times and routines, and communicated daily updates to parents.
4. Tutoring or Helping Learners with Homework
If matric learners come to you for maths help, or you coached your younger siblings through their exams, you have teaching and communication experience. Tutoring proves you can explain complex ideas simply, a skill that applies to sales, training, customer service and admin.
How to word it: Peer Tutor, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, 2023 to 2025. Tutored five Grade 11 learners weekly; three improved their term marks by a full symbol.
5. Running a Side Hustle
Selling sneakers, doing hair, baking for orders, fixing phones, designing posters for local businesses: a side hustle is a business, full stop. It shows sales ability, customer service, money management and self-discipline. If you are turning your hustle into a career, our guide to building a freelancer CV on Nasi iSpani shows you how to package it professionally. When you are ready to grow, you can register your business through the CIPC.
How to word it: Founder, [Business Name], 2023 to present. Built a customer base of 40+ repeat clients, managed orders and payments via WhatsApp, and grew monthly income by 60% over one year.
6. Managing Social Media for a Group or Small Business
Running the Instagram page for your soccer team, posting updates for your church, or handling WhatsApp orders for a family business is digital marketing experience. Social media management is one of the fastest-growing entry-level skills in South Africa, and you can back it up with numbers: followers gained, posts published, enquiries answered.
How to word it: Social Media Manager (volunteer), Local Football Club, 2024 to present. Grew the club’s Facebook page from 200 to 1,500 followers and posted match updates, fixtures and fundraising appeals weekly.
7. Handling Money for a Stokvel, Society or Burial Scheme
If you have been the treasurer of a stokvel, collected contributions for a society, or kept records for a savings group, you have financial administration experience. You tracked payments, kept records, reported back to members and handled other people’s money honestly. Bookkeeping, admin and cash-handling roles are built on exactly this.
How to word it: Treasurer, Family Stokvel (12 members), 2022 to present. Collect and record monthly contributions of R6,000, maintain the group ledger, and present financial reports at monthly meetings.
8. Captaining a Sports Team or Coaching Juniors
Leading a team teaches you to motivate people, resolve conflict, plan under pressure and take responsibility for results. Coaching juniors adds mentorship and organisation. These are leadership credentials, and recruiters read them that way, especially for supervisory and team-based roles.
How to word it: Team Captain, U19 Netball, 2023 to 2024. Led a squad of 12 players, ran weekly training sessions with the coach, and captained the team to a regional semi-final.
9. Caring for a Family Member
Many young South Africans carry serious caregiving responsibilities at home, such as looking after an elderly grandparent, a sick relative, or younger siblings while parents work. This is real work: managing medication schedules, cooking, budgeting for the household and coordinating with clinics. It is directly relevant to healthcare, care work and hospitality, and it explains gaps in your CV honestly.
How to word it: Family Caregiver, 2023 to 2024. Provided daily care for an elderly family member, including medication management, meal preparation and clinic appointments, while managing the household budget.
10. Student Leadership and School Responsibilities
Serving on the RCL or SRC, being a class monitor, organising the matric dance, running the debate society: school leadership counts. It proves you can be trusted with responsibility before anyone paid you for it. Include the role, what you organised, and the scale (how many people, how much money, how big the event). Programmes like the Youth Employment Service (YES) look for exactly this kind of initiative when placing candidates.
How to word it: RCL Representative, 2024. Represented 40 classmates at monthly school governance meetings and co-organised a matric farewell for 180 learners on a R25,000 budget.
How to Add These to Your CV the Right Way
- Be honest. Never inflate an activity into something it wasn’t. Recruiters phone references, and one exaggeration can sink your whole application.
- Use numbers. People served, money handled, followers, learners tutored. Numbers turn a vague claim into evidence.
- Match the job. Applying for a cashier post? Lead with the spaza shop and stokvel experience. Applying for admin? Lead with record-keeping and organising. Tailor every application.
- List it under Experience, not buried at the bottom. Format it like a job: role, organisation or context, dates, and two to three bullet points describing what you did and achieved.
- Get a reference. The shop owner, the pastor, the coach, the parent you babysat for. Ask permission to list them as a reference with a phone number.
Put It on Paper Today.
You are not inexperienced. You have been building work experience your whole life. It just never came with a contract. Open the free CV Builder on Nasi iSpani, add these activities under your experience section, then run your finished CV through the ATS Resume Scanner to make sure it gets past employer screening software.
The experience is real. Now make sure recruiters can see it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I put unpaid work as work experience on my CV?
Yes. Recruiters care about skills and reliability, not whether you were paid. List volunteering, family business work and community roles under your Experience section, formatted like a job with dates and duties.
How do I list informal work if I do not have a job title?
Create an honest, descriptive title yourself, such as Sales Assistant, Childminder, Peer Tutor or Treasurer. Add the context in brackets, for example “Sales Assistant (family business)”, so the recruiter understands the setting.
What if I have no reference for informal work?
Ask the person you helped, such as the shop owner, coach, pastor or parent, for permission to list them with a phone number. A character reference from a teacher or community leader also works if no one else is available.
Will employers take a side hustle seriously?
Yes, if you present it with results. Show customer numbers, income growth, or repeat clients. A side hustle proves sales, customer service and money management skills that many graduates cannot demonstrate.
How much everyday experience should I include?
Choose the three or four activities most relevant to the job you are applying for. A cashier application should lead with cash handling and customer service; an admin application should lead with record-keeping and organising.
Is it lying to call these activities work experience?
No, as long as you describe them accurately. Lying would be inventing an employer or inflating your role. Describing real responsibilities you carried out, with honest dates and numbers, is exactly what a CV is for.
