How to write a CV in Kenya with no work experience

Start with one job advert, not a blank template

Choose a role you could realistically do and read the requirements before you write. For an office assistant application, look for tasks such as organising records, answering enquiries or preparing documents. For a shop assistant role, look for customer service, accurate transactions and stock handling. Highlight three requirements you can support with something you have actually done.

Make a rough note beside each requirement: the situation, your task and the evidence you could discuss. If the advert asks for a qualification or licence you do not hold, a well-designed CV will not replace it. Check whether it is essential or preferred before investing time in the application.

Use a simple first-CV structure

Put your strongest relevant evidence early. The National Careers Service recommends using education, projects and volunteering when your work history is short. For an application in Kenya, follow the individual employer’s document instructions and give a phone number you can reliably answer.

• Name and contact: your name, town or county, phone and professional email address. Add a relevant portfolio link if you have one.
• Short profile: your training, one or two useful skills and the kind of work you are applying for.
• Education and training: the qualification, institution and accurate completion dates. Mark an unfinished qualification as in progress.
• Projects, attachment or other experience: what you did, where, when and what you learned or delivered.
• Skills: specific tasks or tools you can demonstrate. State language ability accurately.

• National Careers Service: CV sections and first-job evidence

Turn informal experience into evidence

Describe informal experience by its real name. Helping a relative record sales is useful experience; it does not make you the finance manager. A class project should remain labelled as a class project. Clear labels make your application easier to trust and give the interviewer something concrete to ask about.

Use an action, an object and a result or purpose. “Entered daily sales in a spreadsheet and compared the total with receipts” says more than “excellent computer skills”. Add a number only when you can explain where it came from. If you did not measure a result, describe the completed task instead.

Family shop support | [Town] | [Month year–Month year]
• Recorded stock deliveries in a notebook and checked quantities against supplier notes.
• Helped customers locate items and referred pricing questions to the owner.
• Arranged products by category so the owner could check stock more easily.

A first-CV template you can adapt

Copy this outline into a document and replace every bracketed field. Remove sections that add no useful evidence. Use a readable layout with enough space between sections; do not squeeze the text to make the document look shorter. The employer’s page or file limits take priority.

[FULL NAME]
[Town, Kenya] | [Phone] | [Email] | [Relevant portfolio link]

PROFILE
[Qualification or current training] with experience in [real activity]. Able to [specific task] and [specific task]. Interested in the [exact role title] position.

EDUCATION
[Qualification], [Institution] — [Completion date or expected date]
[Relevant project or subject, if useful]

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE / PROJECTS
[Accurate activity title], [Organisation or course] — [Dates]
• [Your action + what you worked on + result or purpose]
• [Another relevant action you can explain]

SKILLS
[Tool or practical skill] — [What you can do with it]
[Language] — [Accurate level]

Make the file easy to use

If the advert accepts PDF, export a text-based PDF and check that you can select and copy the words. A photograph of a printed CV is harder to read and reuse. If the employer requests a Word file or an online form, use that format instead. Name the file clearly, for example Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf.

Open the final file on a phone as well as your computer. Check that contact details are visible, dates are consistent and no line is cut off. Avoid hiding important information inside decorative graphics. Keep a separate editable version so you can update it without rebuilding the document.

Check before you apply

Save the submitted version with the vacancy title and application date. If you get an interview, you will know exactly which information the employer has. Your next improvement should come from clearer evidence or a relevant new project, not from adding claims you cannot support.

• Can you explain every qualification, responsibility and skill listed?
• Does the first half of the CV show evidence for this particular role?
• Have you removed sample names, comments and bracketed placeholders?
• Are your phone number, email and links correct?
• Have you asked permission before sharing a referee’s contact details?
• Does the advert require a cover letter, reference number or separate application form?

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