The purpose of a Candidate advert is to create awareness of your availability, attract Recruiter’s attention and persuade them to read your CV. Position, years of experience and qualifications will attract attention but it is your list of duties/responsibilities that will persuade a Recruiter to read your CV.

Your goal is to provide a short summary of all your capabilities in the position by answering two questions: What and How. Start by making a list of all your duties and then grouping them into different categories. For example filing, faxing and typing will fall under general administration. Once all your duties are moved into categories you can start concentrating on selling yourself. This technique works well for duties that are not key to the position.

In order to sell yourself you need to showcase how well you did your job by focusing on your key functions. You can achieve this by using power words and quantifying your experience. Power words accentuate and highlight actions, skills and achievements. Your choice in power words will be dependant on the position you are applying for. A managerial position will require words such as "oversaw, developed, improved and reduced", whereas a more creative position will need words such as "designed, compiled and created".

Power verbs to accentuate organisational skills:

Power verbs used to highlight achievements:

Other power verbs:

Impress Recruiters by quantifying your experience. Quantifying your experience helps to express the quantity workload you can process. It is also a good indicator of previous professional accomplishments such as saving and making money for your employer. Quantify your experience by asking yourself the following questions: How many? How much? How Often? How many and how often refers to your workload. Instead of just listing you duties, indicate the volume you process per day or month and the regularity of each duty. How much refers to profitability. Indicate how much money you saved or made for company with the strategies you implemented.

Examples of quantified experience

How many: Ensured compliance with the filing of 75 annual forms by 7 different company departments.
How much: Implemented new payroll and tax accounting systems that saved firm $1M in personnel costs over the next 10 years.
How often: Managed switchboard with 10 incoming lines, effectively receiving and routing an average of 500 calls per day.

A combination of power words and quantified experience will persuade any Recruiter to view your CV!