Lynda Ward, owner of the pet industry’s recruitment specialists, says: “People must realise that their CV is their shop window.”

She went on: “At Pet Trade Solutions we do not devise CVs for candidates but do sometimes have to advise even people who have held very senior positions that their CV just does not adequately reflect their skills and experience and needs attention in order to attract ‘buyers’.

A few of the common errors are:

• Not listing skills
• Not including a summary of experience
• Listing earliest employment first – roles should be listed starting with latest
• Listing school certificates and relevant hobbies at beginning of CV (they should be at the end after relevant training courses attended)
• Not giving examples of achievements for each role
• Using present tense instead of past tense when describing past roles
• Not making CV relevant to the role applied for (e.g. stating their mission to be to further their career in equine sales, when they are applying for a role selling dog food)
• Using too many I’s e.g. I did this, I did that, I was, I have
• Not including details of at least two refe

Lynda continued: “A CV should be well laid out, grammatically correct, short and succinct, making best use of bullet points whilst fully displaying the qualities of its owner, targeted to the particular role and of course correct in all details. 

"It is also common for overseas candidates’ CVs to include a recent photograph and this is a trend that we would advise as it immediately brings the CV alive in the same way that the product image on packaging does.

"Finally, take time to produce a great CV…..it’s actually the first part of your interview.”

Lynda is always happy to personally advise on any aspects of recruitment and marketing strategy and can be contacted on 07946 743784 or at lyndaward@pettradesolutions.com