Tired of Tarmacking? CV Tips That Work in Kenya

Tarmacking smarter, not longer

Every Kenyan job seeker knows the word: tarmacking — pounding the streets from office to office, envelope of CVs in hand, from Nairobi's CBD to Industrial Area and back. It's exhausting, it's expensive in matatu fares, and most of those envelopes end up in a drawer.

Here's the honest truth: the problem is usually not effort. It's that the CV inside the envelope looks like everyone else's. Fix the CV, change where you drop it, and the same energy starts producing interviews.

What Kenyan recruiters scan for first

KCSE and your papers, stated simply

List your education with the names recruiters expect: KCSE with your grade if it's strong ("KCSE — B+, Moi Forces Academy, 2021"), then certificate, diploma or degree. If you're still studying, say so with the expected completion date. TVET diplomas are increasingly respected — name the institution and the course exactly.

One phone number that actually goes through

Kenyan recruiters call and WhatsApp. Use your active Safaricom or Airtel line, write it in full (07XX or +254), and make sure M-Pesa is registered to the same name as your CV — small consistency details build trust when documents are checked later.

A specific objective

"Seeking any available position" reads like desperation in Nairobi just as it does anywhere. "Seeking a position as a sales attendant in retail" gets read. One sentence, one target. Our guide on writing a CV objective gives you ready-made templates.

Your hustle is experience — write it like experience

Kenya's hustle economy is full of real, demonstrable skills. The difference between "I was just hustling" and a strong CV line is how you write it:

• Mama mboga stall or market trading → "Ran a daily vegetable stall, managing stock, pricing and 50+ customers a day"
• Boda boda or delivery riding → "Provided delivery services across Nairobi, managing routes, schedules and customer payments via M-Pesa"
• Chama treasurer → "Managed monthly contributions and records for a 25-member chama, with zero discrepancies in three years"
• M-Pesa agent work → "Operated an M-Pesa agency point, processing daily float and serving 60+ customers"
• Selling clothes on Instagram or WhatsApp → "Built and ran an online clothing business: sourcing, marketing, sales and deliveries"

Numbers, action verbs, results. That is experience — full guide in how to write a CV with no formal experience.

Where to put your CV instead of every gate in town

• BrighterMonday Kenya and Fuzu — the two biggest local boards; Fuzu also shows you how your profile compares to a job's requirements.
• LinkedIn — Nairobi's corporate, NGO and tech employers recruit here heavily; a complete profile costs nothing.
• NGO and UN careers pages — Nairobi is East Africa's humanitarian hub; international organisations only hire through their own portals.
• County and public service announcements — official government vacancies are published publicly and are always free to apply.

That last word matters: free. In Kenya, anyone demanding "registration", "medical booking" or "training" fees before you start is a con. The Public Service Commission does not charge applicants, and neither does any genuine employer.

Keep your numbers off the paper

Your National ID number, KRA PIN, NSSF and SHA details belong at onboarding, when you've signed a contract — not on a CV photocopied around town. A CV with your ID number on it is a gift to fraudsters. Name, phone, email, estate/area and town are enough.

One page that beats the robots too

Big Kenyan employers — banks, telcos like Safaricom, the multinationals along Mombasa Road — use ATS software to filter applications before a human reads them. Simple layout, standard headings, exact keywords from the advert. Test your CV against a job description with our free ATS analyzer and read the full ATS guide.

Then keep it to one tight page. A focused CV, dropped in the right places, ends the tarmacking faster than a hundred envelopes ever will.

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