Developer CV Format for Kenya: What Recruiters Actually Read

Before you format anything, understand the reading pattern. A recruiter at a Kenyan company reviewing 50+ applications will spend 15 to 30 seconds on your CV before deciding to read further or move on.

In those 30 seconds, they scan for:

• Your name and contact details. Can they reach you easily?
• Your skills. Do they match the job description?
• Your experience level. Junior, mid, senior? Any production experience?
• Where you have worked or what you have built. Any recognizable company names, or concrete project descriptions?

Everything else, your hobbies, your primary school, your "objective statement," is invisible in those 30 seconds. Design your CV to front-load the things that matter.

A note on Kenyan-specific conventions:

• Some Kenyan employers still expect a passport photo on the CV. Unless specifically requested, leave it out. It adds no information and introduces bias.
• Including your national ID number, marital status, or religion is outdated and unnecessary. Modern Kenyan tech companies do not need or want this information on a CV.
• References: "Available on request" is sufficient. Do not waste space listing referees unless the application specifically asks for them.

Here is a text-based template you can adapt. This format works for startups, corporates, and remote applications. The order of sections is intentional.

JANE WANJIKU MWANGI
jane.mwangi@email.com | +254 7XX XXX XXX
Nairobi, Kenya
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/janemwangi
GitHub: github.com/janemwangi
Portfolio: janemwangi.dev

---

SKILLS SUMMARY
Full-stack developer with 1+ year of experience building
web applications for the Kenyan market.
Primary stack: React, TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL.
Also worked with: Python, Flask, M-Pesa Daraja API, Docker.

---

PROJECTS

M-Pesa Payment Dashboard | Live: mpesa-dash.railway.app
- Built a real-time payment tracking dashboard for a
  hardware shop in Kawangware.
- Integrated Daraja API for STK Push payments and
  automated callback processing.
- Stack: React, Node.js, Express, PostgreSQL, Daraja API.

School Fee Tracker | Live: fee-tracker.vercel.app
- Web app that lets parents track school fee balances
  and receive M-Pesa payment confirmations.
- Stack: Next.js, Supabase, Tailwind CSS.

---

EXPERIENCE

Junior Developer | TechStartup Ltd, Nairobi
Mar 2025 to Present
- Built and maintained front-end features for a logistics
  platform serving 200+ delivery riders.
- Reduced page load time by 40% by implementing code
  splitting and image optimization.
- Participated in daily standups, code reviews, and
  sprint planning.

Freelance Developer
Sep 2024 to Feb 2025
- Built 4 websites for local businesses (restaurant,
  salon, church, hardware shop).
- Delivered all projects on time and within budget.

---

EDUCATION

BSc Computer Science | University of Nairobi
2020 to 2024

---

ADDITIONAL
- AWS Cloud Practitioner (2025)
- Active member, GDG Nairobi
- Languages: English, Swahili

This CV fits on one page. If you have more experience, it can extend to two pages, but no more than two. Every line earns its place.

Contact details (top of page):

• Name (full name, prominently displayed).
• Email (a professional email, not coolguy254@gmail.com).
• Phone (with Kenyan country code if applying internationally).
• City (Nairobi is enough; no need for full postal address).
• LinkedIn, GitHub, and portfolio links. These are not optional for developers. If you do not have them, build them before sending CVs.

Skills summary (2 to 3 lines):

• Replace the traditional "objective statement" with a skills summary. An objective like "Seeking a challenging role to grow my career" tells the recruiter nothing. A skills summary like "Full-stack developer with 1+ year of experience building web apps with React, Node.js, and PostgreSQL" tells them exactly what you do.
• List your primary stack first, then secondary technologies. Only list technologies you can discuss confidently in an interview.

Projects (for juniors, this section is critical):

• If you have limited work experience, your projects section is what gets you interviews. Treat it like your experience section.
• Each project: name, live link, 2 to 3 bullet points describing what it does and what you built, tech stack.
• Start each bullet point with an action verb: "Built", "Integrated", "Designed", "Deployed", "Reduced", "Automated".

Experience:

• Company name, your title, dates, 2 to 4 bullet points per role.
• Focus on what you accomplished, not what you were responsible for. "Reduced API response time from 800ms to 200ms by adding database indexes" is stronger than "Responsible for API performance."
• Include freelance work. It is real experience. Frame it professionally with specific deliverables.

Education:

• Degree, institution, years. If you graduated with honours, mention it. Otherwise, the degree and institution are enough.
• For bootcamp graduates: include the bootcamp name, dates, and a line about what you learned or built.
• For self-taught developers: skip the education section entirely if you have no relevant formal education. Your projects speak for you.

Every unnecessary item on your CV is space that could have been used for something useful. Remove these:

• Objective statement. "Seeking a challenging role in a dynamic company" adds nothing. Replace with a skills summary.
• Photo. Unless the company specifically asks for one. In Kenya, some traditional employers expect it, but most tech companies do not.
• Personal details. Date of birth, marital status, national ID number, religion, ethnicity. None of these are relevant to your ability to write code.
• Primary and secondary school. Your KCPE and KCSE results are not relevant after university or if you have any professional experience. Remove them.
• Every technology ever. Listing 30 technologies makes you look unfocused. List your primary 5 to 8 technologies and mention others only if they are relevant to the specific role.
• Hobbies. "Reading, travelling, and socializing" is filler. If a hobby is genuinely relevant (you contribute to open source, you write a tech blog, you organise a meetup), include it. Otherwise, skip it.
• Star ratings for skills. Those skill bars that show "JavaScript: 4/5 stars" are meaningless. What does 4 out of 5 in JavaScript even mean? Remove them. Either you know a technology well enough to use it professionally, or you do not.
• Fancy formatting. Multi-column layouts, colourful sidebars, and decorative graphics may look nice on screen but often break when parsed by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that many companies use. A clean, simple layout with clear headings works everywhere.

Sending the same CV to every company is like wearing the same outfit to a wedding, a job interview, and a football match. It might technically cover you, but it does not fit any situation well.

How to tailor effectively without rewriting from scratch:

• Read the job description carefully. Highlight the technologies, skills, and qualities mentioned. If the posting mentions "React, TypeScript, and REST APIs," make sure those exact words appear in your CV.
• Reorder your skills. Put the technologies mentioned in the job description first in your skills summary. If they want Python and you listed it last, move it up.
• Highlight the most relevant project. If the company builds fintech products and you have an M-Pesa integration project, make that your first listed project. If they build e-commerce and you built an online store, lead with that.
• Adjust your experience bullets. Emphasize the accomplishments most relevant to this specific role. You do not need to rewrite everything, just reorder or slightly rephrase to match what the employer values.

For different employer types in Kenya:

• Startups: Lead with projects and practical skills. Show that you can ship fast. Include links to live demos.
• Banks and corporates: Lead with education and formal experience. Include any certifications (AWS, Oracle, etc.). Use more formal language.
• Remote international companies: Lead with skills and projects. Include your time zone (EAT, UTC+3) and mention experience with remote collaboration tools (Slack, GitHub, Jira). Strong English writing matters.

Save your master CV as a template. For each application, duplicate it, tailor the relevant sections, and save it with the company name in the filename. This takes 15 to 20 minutes per application but dramatically improves your response rate.

Should you include a cover letter? It depends on the application.

When to include one:

• When the application asks for one. Ignoring the request signals you do not read instructions.
• When applying directly to a specific person (a CTO, a hiring manager) via email. A brief note explaining why you are reaching out is polite and effective.
• When you have a specific connection to the company (you use their product, you know someone there, you attended their event).

When to skip it:

• When the job board does not have a field for it.
• When the posting says "No cover letter needed."

If you write one, keep it to 3 to 4 paragraphs:

1. Who you are and what role you are applying for.
2. Why you are interested in THIS company specifically. Mention their product, their mission, or something specific. "I saw your recent integration with Safaricom's Daraja API and I have built similar integrations for local businesses" is specific and compelling.
3. Your 1 to 2 most relevant qualifications or projects.
4. A closing line: "I would welcome the chance to discuss how my experience aligns with what you are building. My portfolio is at [link]."

A good cover letter is the difference between your CV sitting in a pile and someone actually reading it. A generic one ("Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to express my interest in the advertised position...") adds no value. Either make it specific or skip it.