How to Write a CV for an Internship in Kenya When You Have No Work Experience

You find an internship you would like to apply for. You open a blank document, type your name and reach the heading Work Experience. You have never held a formal job. What do you write?

Start with a different question: What have you already done that would help you perform this role? Perhaps you kept minutes for a student club, interviewed traders for a class project, managed registration at a campus event or helped customers in a family business. Each activity can give an employer evidence of how you work. The skill lies in choosing the right example and explaining your contribution honestly.

1. Read the vacancy before you write the CV

Imagine you are applying for a communications internship. The advert mentions writing short updates, keeping records and helping to organise events. Those phrases give you three things to look for in your own experience.

If you served as a club secretary, for example, you may have done all three. Instead of introducing yourself as “a hardworking, self-motivated student with excellent communication skills,” you could write:

History student seeking a communications internship. As secretary of a student club, I prepare meeting minutes, write notices for members and coordinate attendance for events.

This introduction tells the reader what you can do and where you learned to do it. For a research internship, you might lead with a fieldwork project instead. The facts stay the same; the vacancy determines which facts deserve the most space.

2. Give your experience a heading that fits

A first CV does not need an empty employment section. Use an accurate heading such as Relevant Projects, Leadership and Volunteering or Practical Experience. Give the activity a title, identify the organisation or course, add the dates and explain your own part.

Consider the difference:

Too vague: “Participated in a group research project.”

More useful: “Prepared interview questions for a class project on local trade, organised the group’s field notes by theme and presented our findings to the class.”

Both statements could describe the same project. The second gives the reader a reason to consider the applicant for a role involving interviews, records or presentations. Use it as a pattern, not a claim to copy: say what you did, what you worked on and what came out of it.

3. Put the strongest evidence where the reader can find it

For a student applying for a first internship, this is a useful starting order:

1. Name and contact details: Use a working phone number and an email address you check.
2. Short profile: Identify your field of study, the opportunity you want and one relevant strength you can demonstrate.
3. Education: Give your programme, institution and expected completion date. Include relevant coursework selectively.
4. Projects, leadership or practical experience: Put your strongest example first. If you have completed a relevant attachment, it may deserve to appear before education.
5. Skills: Name specific abilities you can discuss at interview. “Excel: organising survey responses and creating tables” says more than “computer literate.”

Follow the employer’s instructions on documents, referees and file format. If the advert requests a PDF, open the exported PDF before sending it. Check that the heading, dates and contact details still appear correctly.

4. Check what your CV actually communicates

Before submitting, read the advert again and ask: If the recruiter had only my CV, what evidence would they find that I can do this work? If a key skill appears only in your skills list, add a truthful example where you used it.

You can also try Querilla Marketing’s free CV text checker. Choose your target country and application type, paste your CV text, and add the internship description if you have it. The checker reviews features such as headings and wording and shows selected words that appear in both texts. You can leave out sensitive details and view the free result without providing an email address.

Treat a missing word as a question, not an instruction. If the advert says “record keeping” and your CV says “maintained the club’s attendance register,” you may already have a stronger example than the keyword alone. The checker cannot see your original document layout or predict whether you will be shortlisted.

When would a professional review help?

Sometimes the difficult part is deciding what to leave out. You might have class projects, volunteer activities and a part-time role, all competing for space, yet still feel that your CV says little about the internship you want.

Start with the free CV check. If you would like personal help selecting and presenting your strongest examples, Querilla Marketing’s Graduate Start package offers a CV written or rewritten for one target role and a tailored cover letter for US$60, with the scope, delivery date and revision allowance agreed before payment.

Before you close that internship advert, try one small edit: replace “I have good communication skills” with one sentence describing a time you used them. That sentence may be the strongest line in your first CV.