Usually, people don’t keep their resumes up to date when they think they’ve found a home. That makes the creation of a resume a terrible chore when the time comes to write it. The challenge of adequately presenting yourself is harder when the chips are down and you really need it done right now. Writing your resume often becomes one of those tasks that is easy to procrastinate even in the middle of the crisis caused by not having it.

One of the best things you can do when you are looking for work is to get in the habit of continually updating your resume. Make a game out of it. The practice is particularly useful given the number of times that you ought to revise it during a job search (once for each job you chase).

One of the hardest things in the process of constant reinvention is overcoming the sense that you are lying. Periodically, the media goes crazy about the number of fraudulent resumes. This is often at the prompting of the industry that sells background checking services.

If your work career has been interesting at all, there will be number of ways to tell your story. It’s not lying to tell the story differently depending on the audience. A resume should be different for each audience that sees it. Politicians call it spin. Lawyers call it advocacy. Advertisers call it copy.

We are not monochrome single dimension people. Learning to illuminate your differences for unique circumstances allows your full spectrum to shine.

If you are a makeup specialist, you will tell your story differently when applying for a job in a funeral parlor than you would for a clown school. If you are good with needle and thread, you will emphasize different parts of your work history if you are applying for a job as a tailor than you would for an emergency veterinary clinic.

Here are a few tips for customizing your resume:

1. Think about your audience. What do they think is interesting or funny? Beef up your job narratives to suitably impress.
2. Make sure your resume contains keywords that match the job ad (different for each job)
3. Try writing your resume to apply for a job you’d never take. How well do your experiences apply to the honey dipper profession (go ahead, look it up in the urban dictionary)?
4. Some industries prefer an objective, some don’t want one on your resume. Search for sample resumes in the industry you are targeting.
5. Jargon makes you credible. But, jargon from the wrong industry makes you look dumb. Visit industry specific blogs and learn the language.
6. Don’t sound desperate. The less you need the job, the more they’ll want you. This is called being a passive candidate.
7. If you have a gap in your resume, work on clever ways to describe it. Mattress testing intern, lawn examiner, Southern California Ocean Sand Inspector. Most of the people you’ll deal with also have gaps.

The most important thing you can do is learn to be comfortable modifying you story to suit the circumstances. Different emphases are useful to explain your relevance in differing environments. While you are in a stable career circumstance, practice changing your resume once a quarter.