Why informal work belongs on your CV

What recruiters are actually looking for

When a recruiter at a Nairobi company opens your CV, they are not checking whether your previous employer was registered at the Registrar of Companies. They are checking three things: can you do the tasks the job requires, can you handle responsibility, and can you show up reliably? Informal and family business work gives evidence for all three — but only if you describe it in the language recruiters recognise.

The problem is not the experience itself. The problem is how candidates describe it. Writing "helped in the family shop" tells the recruiter nothing about what you actually did, how much responsibility you held, or what the result of your work was. A Nairobi supermarket cashier who writes "handled daily cash reconciliation for a retail outlet with monthly turnover of Ksh 180,000" is describing the same kind of work far more usefully. The work is identical; the framing is what changes the outcome.

Kenyan hiring managers — especially in retail, logistics, banking agency work, microfinance, agriculture and fast-moving consumer goods — frequently value people who have handled real money, dealt with real customers and solved real problems without supervision. Family and informal businesses provide exactly that environment. Your job is to make that visible on the page rather than hiding it behind vague language or leaving the period blank.

The risk of leaving it off entirely

If you finished school or college in 2020 and your CV shows no activity until 2024, a recruiter reading it will assume one of two things: that you spent those years doing nothing, or that you are hiding something. Either assumption hurts your chances. Leaving informal work off your CV does not make you look like a fresh graduate — it makes you look like someone with an unexplained gap.

Filling that gap with honest, well-described work — even unpaid work in a family business — immediately makes your CV stronger. It shows continuity. It shows that you were building skills and accepting responsibility during that period. And it gives the interviewer something to ask you about, which is always to your advantage because you know the answer from lived experience.

How to structure the entry on your CV

Choosing a job title that is honest and readable

You need a job title for the role. Do not write "Family Helper" or "Volunteer" unless you genuinely did nothing beyond occasional assistance. Instead, look at what you actually did most of the time and find the closest recognised title. If you served customers and handled money, the title is "Sales Assistant" or "Retail Cashier." If you managed stock, ordered goods from suppliers and tracked what sold, the title is "Stock Controller" or "Inventory Assistant." If you ran the business while a parent was away — handling suppliers, staff, accounts and customers — the title is "Business Operations Assistant" or, if you did it for long enough and with enough independence, "Acting Manager."

These titles are not lies. They are the standard industry names for the work you performed. A recruiter at Naivas, Quickmart or a logistics company will immediately understand what those titles mean. They will not understand "helped run things at home." If you are unsure which title fits, open BrighterMonday or MyJobMag Kenya, search for jobs that match what you did, and look at the job titles they use. Copy the title that best matches your actual responsibilities.

For the employer line, write the business name if it has one — even an informal name like "Mama Wanjiku Cereals" is fine. If it has no name, write a description: "Family retail grain business, Githurai 44" or "Smallholder dairy farm, Eldoret." Add the location and the dates. Format it exactly the same way you would format a formal employer, because visually it needs to sit in the same space on the page without looking different or apologetic.

Writing bullet points that show what you actually did

Every bullet point under your informal role must do three things: name the task, give a scale or number, and state the result or responsibility level. The formula is simple: Action verb + what you did + how much/how many/how often + what happened because of it.

Start each bullet with a past-tense action verb. Kenyan CVs often begin bullets with nouns or vague phrases like "Responsible for..." — this is weak. Use verbs: managed, processed, reconciled, negotiated, ordered, tracked, trained, resolved, operated. These words signal competence immediately.

Then add a number wherever you can. Numbers do not have to be precise to the last shilling — reasonable estimates are fine. How many customers did you serve in a day? How much cash did you close with at the end of the day? How many items were in the stock you managed? How many suppliers did you deal with? How many staff did you coordinate? If you genuinely do not know, think about it: if you served roughly 30 customers on a quiet day and 80 on a busy Saturday, you can write "served 30–80 customers daily." That is honest and it is far more informative than "served customers."

Finally, say what the result was. Did stock losses fall because you introduced a system? Did customer complaints drop? Did sales increase during a period when you were in charge? If you cannot name an outcome, name the responsibility level instead: "sole person responsible for cash security after close of business" tells the recruiter something real about the trust placed in you.

Worked examples — weak versus strong

Side-by-side comparisons you can adapt directly

Example: M-Pesa agency work described correctly
Weak: "Worked at a family M-Pesa shop."

Strong: "Operated an M-Pesa agency outlet in Kisumu CBD; processed an average of 80 transactions daily including deposits, withdrawals and airtime sales; managed float levels and submitted daily transaction reports to the business owner; maintained customer confidentiality in line with Safaricom agency guidelines."

Why this works: It names the service (M-Pesa agency), the volume (80 transactions), the specific tasks (float management, reporting), and a compliance point (confidentiality). Any recruiter hiring for a bank branch, a microfinance institution, or an agency banking role will immediately understand this experience.

Example: Informal tailoring or craft business
Weak: "Helped my aunt with her tailoring business."

Strong: "Assisted in running a home-based tailoring business in Gikomba area, Nairobi; managed customer orders and delivery timelines for 15–25 active clients; collected and recorded deposits and balance payments; sourced fabric from Gikomba market suppliers and tracked material costs per order."

Why this works: It names the location, gives client volume, mentions financial handling, and shows supply-chain awareness — all relevant to retail, fashion, logistics or customer service roles.

What to do when the situation is complicated

When you were not paid, or payment was irregular

You do not need to disclose your pay on a CV. No section of a standard Kenyan CV asks for salary history (and if an application form does, that is a separate question from whether the role appears on the CV at all). The absence of formal pay does not make the experience invalid. What matters is whether you performed real work with real responsibility. If you did, it goes on the CV as experience. If you were only occasionally helping out — carrying things, minding the stall for an hour while someone ate — that is not really a job entry; it is a minor supporting detail you might mention in an interview if relevant.

If the experience was unpaid but substantial — say, six months or more of regular involvement — include it fully. If it was very short-term or highly irregular, you can include it in a shorter form or fold several short informal roles into a single "Freelance and Family Business Support" entry covering the whole period, with a brief summary of the types of tasks you did.

When a family member will be your reference

Recruiters in Kenya are aware that family businesses exist and that family members are the natural reference for work done in them. A reference from a parent or sibling is not automatically disqualifying — but it does need to be handled carefully. First, list someone who can speak to your work professionally, not just confirm you are a good person. If your mother ran the business, she can describe your daily tasks, your punctuality and any specific responsibilities you held. She should be reachable by phone during business hours. When you list her on the reference page, write her name, her relationship to the business ("Owner, Wangari Cereals, Thika"), and a working phone number — not a WhatsApp-only number unless you are sure she checks it during the day.

If you can also list a non-family reference — a supplier who dealt with you regularly, a neighbouring business owner who knows your work, a teacher or religious leader who can speak to your character — include that person alongside the family reference. Two references are standard on Kenyan CVs. If one is family and one is independent, that is a reasonable and honest combination. Do not invent a reference; if the recruiter calls and the person does not remember you or contradicts your CV, the application is over.

When you ran the business entirely on your own

If a parent or relative was absent — working elsewhere, ill, travelling — and you were the one opening the business, managing staff, handling suppliers and closing at night, then you were performing a management role. Do not undersell this. The title in this case can be "Acting Business Manager" or "Business Operations Lead" depending on how much independence you had. The bullet points should reflect the full scope: staff coordination, cash management, supplier relations, customer dispute resolution, and any record-keeping you did. Highlight the duration — if you did this for three months while a parent was in hospital, say so. Recruiters understand family circumstances and will not penalise you for them; what they will notice is whether you rose to the occasion and can describe what that looked like in practice.