How to Write a CV in Mozambique in 2026 (Complete Guide)

A CV in Mozambique is your introduction to the job market: one or two pages where you show who you are, what you know, and what you have done. The essential step is simple — tailor your CV to the job opening and send it in PDF format, and that is what decides whether your name makes it to the interview.

Many people call it a resume and spend the night searching "how to make a resume" before applying. The answer is the same: an effective CV is not a list of everything you have done. It is a page that answers the recruiter's questions in seconds.

This article is part of the Inademy Guide, where you will find practical answers for every stage of your job search in Mozambique.

The short answer

Writing a CV in Mozambique in 2026 means summarizing your professional background in 1 to 2 pages, tailored to the job position and without unnecessary personal information. The golden rule: tailor your CV to the job ad and always send it in PDF format.

Why the CV is Decisive in Mozambique

Think about what happens when a company posts a job opening in Maputo, Beira, or Nampula. Dozens, hundreds, or thousands of applications arrive. Job portals in the country describe the process accurately: CVs are evaluated in "hundreds or thousands", and with a "quick glance".

And how long does that glance take? Nobody publishes a time in seconds: job portals describe only a quick glance — and that is all you have to convince them.

This is not a reason to give up — it is a reason to simplify. Clear and concise name, profile, experience, and education beat anything long and confusing.

In Mozambique, the CV is the first filter in most private sector recruitment processes — banking, telecommunications, retail, logistics, and non-governmental organisations. Without a consistent CV, you will not make it to the interview. Many applications in Mozambique are sent and read on mobile phones — which is why readability on a small screen is a requirement, not a detail.

In a market where youth unemployment is high, every vacancy attracts a large number of candidates. Your CV does not just compete with other CVs: it competes for the recruiter's attention. And someone with little attention does not read line by line — they look for signals.

There is good news: the CV does not need to be perfect, it needs to be clear. The following sections show you exactly what to do, with examples tailored for the Mozambican market.

Mozambican preparing a CV on a computer in an office

The 8 steps to make a CV that passes screening

Writing a CV that passes screening isn't a rare gift. It's an 8-step process that anyone can follow, even without experience. By the end of these steps, your CV will be ready for Mozambique's most competitive job openings.

Choose the right template. The reverse chronological format — where the most recent experience appears first — is the format recruiters read fastest. Avoid design-heavy templates — simple structure beats aesthetics.
Write a profile summary at the top. Two to three lines answering three questions: who you are, how many years of experience you have, and which job you're looking for. It's the first thing recruiters read because it's the first thing that appears. See a concrete example below.
Detail your experience using action verbs. Instead of "responsible for the counter", write "served customers, organized stock, and prepared daily reports". Numbers help: "30 customers a day", "14 sales a week". Show what you did, not just the title you held on paper.
Highlight your education if your experience is short. 10th or 12th grade, vocational training, university, professional courses: everything you studied counts as an asset. If you are starting out, your education is your main asset and should appear right after your profile.
List the skills the job requires. IT skills (Word, Excel, platforms), languages, driver's license, cash register, machinery and tools you know how to operate. Don't write "I am a hard worker" — write what you know how to do. Recruiters look for concrete skills, not abstract qualities.
Tailor your CV to each job opening. Cross out what isn't relevant, add what the job ad asks for, reorder your skills. If the job asks for "customer service", your customer service experience must be visible. Ten minutes of tailoring is worth more than an hour of writing.
Proofread the Portuguese, twice. A Mozambican job portal notes Portuguese errors as one of the main reasons for elimination in initial screening. Read your CV out loud, ask someone to read it, and use your phone's spellcheck. Every error is an unnecessary risk.
Export as PDF and give it a professional name. "PauloMabjaia_CV.pdf", not "cv final 2 (3).doc". PDF preserves formatting on any phone or computer, and a Mozambican job portal recommends sending your CV in this format. If the company asks for Word, save that version as well.

Advice from someone who has been on the other side: read the job ad twice before writing. The words in the ad are the words the recruiter is looking for. If you repeat them in your CV — when they make sense for you — you show, without saying a word, that your profile fits the role.

CV example, in practice

A concrete example helps more than a hundred rules. Here is what a recruiter sees at the top of a well-made CV:

Profile summary: "Store assistant with 3 years of retail experience in Maputo. Looking for a customer service position. Familiar with cash registers, Word, and Excel; speak Portuguese and basic English."

And here is how to present work experience, with actions and results:

Mobile phone shop, Maputo — Sales Assistant (2023–2025). "Served an average of 30 customers per day, organized warehouse inventory, and prepared weekly sales reports for management."

If your profile is in retail and customer service, retail job openings in Mozambique are where your CV needs to shine. Notice: two blocks, concrete facts, zero fluff. This is the pattern you repeat throughout your CV.

How to make a CV on a mobile phone

Many candidates in Mozambique make their CV on a mobile phone, and it works. Use an online document editor or a writing app, write the text, choose a simple font (11 or 12), and export to PDF directly from the device.

Young person writing a CV on a mobile phone at home

What changes on a phone is attention to detail: open the PDF before sending, confirm that nothing was cut off, that the font is consistent throughout the document, and that contact details are correct. A CV made on a mobile phone, following these 8 steps, is worth just as much as one made on a computer.

CV apps help with visuals, not content. Use them to build a clean document, but it's what you write that responds to the job ad — and that's what decides the screening.

What to include in a CV — and what to leave OUT

This section is the most important part of this article. A CV is not an ID card: it is a professional document. Recruiters need to know what you do, what you studied, and what you know — not who your parents were, nor what ID number you have.

What should be in your CV:

Full name and contact details. Mobile phone and professional email, written carefully — a wrong digit eliminates you before the interview.
City and province where you live. Helps recruiters understand if you can get to the workplace.
Profile summary. Two or three lines that pitch your application in a few seconds.
Experience. Company, job title, dates, and 3 to 4 bullet points of what you did and achieved.
Education. Degree, institution, and completion year, from most recent to oldest.
Skills and courses. IT skills, languages, professional training, driver's licence.

What should be left out of your CV:

National ID number. Job portal guidance is clear: "it is standard practice not to include an ID number". Many people think an ID makes the CV more complete — it does the opposite: it is information that does not assess skills.
Tax identification number (NUIT). A Mozambican guide to CV writing explains: "ID and NUIT numbers belong to the contract stage". They are details for contracts and payroll, not selection.
Place of birth and parents' names. The same portals note that place of birth "should not be an evaluation metric", and MozYouth points to parents' names as one of the most common mistakes in young candidates' CVs.
Photo. The Mozambican job portal confirms that "it is not mandatory to include a photo". If the company requests one, or if it makes sense in the sector, choose a professional photo: JPG, PNG, or GIF up to 5MB, neutral background, and work attire.
Hobbies and leisure activities. Include them only if relevant to the job: sports for a physical education role, drawing for design. Otherwise, they take up space that should belong to facts.

There is a rare exception to the place of birth rule: when it directly relates to the job duties — for example, a role requiring deep knowledge of a region of the country. Outside of that case, leave it out.

Order matters as much as content. For experienced professionals: profile, experience, education, skills. For beginners: profile, education, skills, activities. Whatever matters most to the job goes near the top; the rest moves down the page.

Do not fill your CV with full references either. If you have solid references from past work, write "references available upon request" — and inform those people before listing them. Contact details are requested at the appropriate stage.

The 5 mistakes that eliminate your CV

If you've sent out CVs and aren't getting called for interviews, one of these five mistakes is to blame. They are the most common in Mozambique — and MozYouth, which supports young applicants, sums up the problem: a huge "number of CVs end up in the trash" because of them.

Too much personal information. ID numbers, NUIT, parents' names, and place of birth right under your name. Recruiters don't need this to evaluate your skills, and Mozambican career guides explicitly recommend leaving them out. Less personal information, more professional information.
Informal email. An address like "chico_tchuna22@..." doesn't convey professionalism. Create an email address with your first and last name, and make sure you typed it correctly on your CV — mistakes here are fatal.
Lying or exaggerating. MozYouth puts "exaggerating or lying" at the top of candidate mistakes. Lies come out in the interview, reference checks, or document reviews — costing you both the job and the company's trust.
Generic CV, sent to everyone. The same CV for every vacancy, without changing a single word. The recruiter spots it instantly: this candidate didn't read the job post. An uncustomized application is the first to be screened out.
Language and spelling errors. Poor grammar, a misspelled name, a misplaced comma: in many screening processes in Mozambique, this means instant elimination.

Half a minute before sending, double-check: is the company name correct? Is the job title correct? Do the dates and contact details match up? Is the text clean? Is the file name professional? This half minute is worth more than any pretty CV template.

CV for a first job and young people

No work experience? Then this section is for you. Job portals accurately define a CV as a "career marketing tool, not an autobiography". In other words: you don't need a lifetime of work to write a good CV — you just need to present what you already have well.

What you have: education (10th grade, 12th grade, vocational training, university), skills, languages, driver's license, courses, internships, volunteering, involvement in youth groups, and activities you carried out for your family or community. All of this counts as accumulated experience.

How to present it: the profile summary at the top immediately shows that you are looking for your first opportunity. Here is an example:

Profile summary: "Young candidate with completed 12th grade education and a basic computer skills course. Seeking my first opportunity as a cashier or receptionist. Immediate availability in Maputo."

After the profile comes education, skills, and activities. The experience section can include internships, temporary work, family businesses you helped with, and volunteering — including dates, if you have them. What shouldn't happen is leaving the CV blank: there is always something you have done that is worth showing.

Translate informal experience into professional language. Did you help sell items in a family shop? Write: "supported the management of a small family business, handling inventory control and customer service". Did you assist with one-off events? "Logistical support for events". It is the exact same experience, presented in a way recruiters recognize.

And don't give in to the temptation of inventing years of experience. An honest, well-organized CV from a recent graduate or beginner passes screening far more often than a fabricated story that falls apart on the very first interview question.

Format: Word or PDF? 1 or 2 pages?

Two rules, answered by Mozambican job platforms themselves. A Mozambican job portal recommends: "use a maximum of 1 to 2 pages" and "prefer sending in PDF format". The country's job platforms also instruct candidates to submit "documents in PDF or Word".

In practice: one page is ideal if you have little experience or a short career history. Two pages only when experience and education are truly extensive. Never more than two — and never a page full of wall-to-wall text just to make it look complete.

As for format: always send a PDF, unless the job post requests Word. A PDF doesn't lose its formatting when opened on a recruiter's mobile phone — and it is on mobile phones that many Mozambican applications are sent and read. Also keep a Word version for when requested, and give the file a name like "FirstnameLastname_CV.pdf", never "test2 final2.doc".

A detail that often goes unnoticed: file size. A CV with heavy photos and graphics might not even open in the company's email — and what doesn't open doesn't get read. Keep the PDF lightweight, without high-resolution photos or unnecessary graphics.

What the law says about your CV

In Mozambique, labor law protects you. Law No. 13/2023, under Article 8, establishes that employers cannot demand information about your private life during hiring. Article 5, in turn, enshrines the principle of non-discrimination and expressly lists place of birth among prohibited grounds.

This means two practical things. First: if a company asks for private personal data during recruitment, you have the right not to provide it. Second: if your place of birth is used to exclude you from a selection process, it violates the law.

A clarification: the law does not explicitly state that asking for an ID (BI) number is forbidden. What the law does is protect your private life and guarantee non-discrimination. The recommended practice in Mozambique, followed by industry application guides, is not to include BI or NUIT numbers on your CV: this data is requested later, at the contract stage, if necessary.

When you are hired, then yes, the company can ask for your BI, NUIT, certificates, and references. Selection is for assessing fit; the contract is for registering who you are. Separating the two stages protects you — and is exactly what Mozambican practice recommends.

The same law sets the standard workweek at 48 hours (Article 93) — and it is good to know your rights before signing any contract.

And it is worth checking the minimum wages by sector in 2026 before negotiating your rate. You can consult the full text of Law No. 13/2023 in PDF on the Ministry of Labor and Social Security website: Labor Law (PDF).

How Inademy helps you

Creating a CV is half the work. The other half is making sure it reaches the people looking for exactly what you can do — and that's where Inademy comes in.

On Inademy, you create your profile in minutes and apply to job openings in Mozambique with your CV. Your CV stays linked to your profile, so you don't have to send it again for every application.

The platform does the rest for you: it sends you new job openings via WhatsApp and email as soon as they appear — without you having to search every day. You don't waste time searching across dozens of websites — you get the opportunities that match your profile directly on your phone.

Young person receiving a new job notification on their phone

See current job openings on Inademy and create your profile. Applying takes minutes, putting your well-crafted CV one step closer to your next interview.

Frequently asked questions

Should I include a photo on my CV?

No. Mozambican job portals are clear on this point: a photo is not required and most applicants do not include one. If the job posting explicitly asks for one, use a recent photo with a neutral background and simple clothing — never a party selfie.

How many pages should a CV be?

One to two pages, as recommended by Mozambican job portals. One page is ideal for entry-level candidates and recent graduates; two pages only if you have long and varied experience. Beyond two pages, recruiters will not read to the end — and essential information gets lost. If your content doesn't fit, edit down rather than making it longer.

Can I send my CV via WhatsApp?

Yes, and some Mozambican job ads ask for CVs via WhatsApp. Always send it as a PDF with a clear filename — for example, "FirstnameLastname_CV.pdf". Avoid sending screenshots of the document, which get cropped and unreadable on the recipient's phone.

Include a short message: your name, the position you are applying for, and two lines about your experience. Avoid one-word messages or sending without any context.

What should I write if I don't have experience?

Write about what you have: education, skills, courses, internships, temporary work, and volunteer experience. Use the profile summary at the top to state that you are looking for your first opportunity, and do not leave the skills section blank — it is what supports your application at this stage.

Should I lie to look better?

No. MozYouth lists "exaggerating or lying" as the number one mistake made by applicants. Companies verify dates, references, and documents, and the first interview question can expose a lie. An honest, tailored, and well-organized CV carries much more weight than an invented story.

Should I write my CV in English?

Only if the job posting requests it or if it is an international company. In Mozambique, most companies and sectors operate in Portuguese, so an English CV is not an advantage in those cases. If the job ad is in English, then yes, a CV in that language is expected. If you speak English, list it under your skills: it adds value to any application.

Creating a successful CV is simpler than it seems: accurate information, no personal exaggeration, tailored to the job, in PDF format. After that, all that's left is applying systematically — and Inademy helps you find the right job openings. The next step is yours: create your profile, tailor your CV, and apply.