The vast majority of career advisers express the importance of customizing your resume for each new job you apply for. But for many of us, the first question is “How do we make our resume stand out?”

It’s easy to get lazy when you’re working with a resume you know so well. So here are some ways to take a fresh look at revising your resume.

Always study the Job Post’s Wording

This is an easy way to ensure your resume gets you to the front of the queue for an interview. Base your resume around the language in the job post.  Look for ways to use the words in the job post; remember a resume reader — human or software — may be screening for them. (If there isn’t a job post description available, check the company’s Web site, especially the About Us page and any corporate mission statements, for language you might adopt.)

So for example if your resume says “supervise,” but the job post says “manage,” change your resume accordingly. If your last job title was “Social Media Manager,” and you’re applying for a “Social Media Marketing Specialist” position, include the term “Marketing Specialist” in parentheses after your title (as long as you feel that this term could describe your past role).

Make sure you keep to the truth. Don’t stretch it!

Remove any ‘white lies’

It’s so very easy for little white lies to make their way into your resume. Maybe a few years ago you added a fictitious certification to your resume, just to help you get an interview at a new company. Or you said you were competent in a software program you figured you could learn if needed.

Then, each time you reviewed and modified your resume, those temporary white lies became set in stone. Now’s the time to send them packing! Any resume white lie, even a seemingly inconsequential one, can put your job search and your future job security in jeopardy.

All those lies now need to be replaced with. It could be as simple as putting the word “pursuing” before that imaginary certification on your resume.

Get Rid of Superfluous Information

Don’t waste your time telling hiring managers what they already know. Lots of people do this in their descriptions of past jobs. For example, if your last job was as a copywriter for an online bathroom retailer, saying something along the lines of “wrote marketing copy for a wide variety of bathrooms” is a waste of time. So don’t fill your resume with superfluous information no one needs, describe specific achievements which link to the job description. Think about your work, did it improve sales or get praise from management? Try to use your job highlights, not job descriptions.

Drop the Unnecessary Resume ‘Stories’

Remove items from your resume that are not directly related to the story you’re telling about yourself and the job you’re applying for. I’m sure we are all interesting as human beings, but employers just want to know if we’re right for their company and the job in question.
For instance, if you’re both a professional accountant and a certified lion tamer, you might want to play down your lion taming experience when you apply for jobs in finance.

Look for Ways to Use Exciting Language

Look at the verbs you use in your resume. Ensure you use strong verbs to make your resume more vibrant and interesting for the reader. For example, “responsible for daily bank deposits” (no verb) could easily be “oversaw daily bank deposits” (strong verb). And as you find each verb, look at its subject and ask “Is it you?”  If not, should it be? For instance, in “duties included writing press releases,” the subject is “duties.” It would be much better to say something like “Wrote all company press releases.”

Take a Look at Your Resume Upside-Down

This is a good tip as it will help you analyze your resume’s appearance separately from its content. Take a good look and ask yourself “Does it look too dense?” Is it top heavy?

“Sometimes a resume will catch my eye simply because it’s formatted beautifully,” says the co-author of Effective Immediately: How to Fit In, Stand Out, and Move Up at Your First Real Job. “I know the most important component is the content on the page, but you should also pay attention to the packaging. Trust me, hiring managers notice.”

Write a Draft in a Different Format

In his book The Overnight Resume: The Fastest Way to Your Next Job, career expert Donald Asher suggests writing a letter to a family member about your job accomplishments as a way to rethink your resume. (Go ahead, brag a little.) Then he suggests turning this into a resume draft by removing most personal pronouns (“I” and “we”), taking out articles (“a,” “an” and “the”) and cutting transition words like “and” (unless doing so would distort meaning).

Thinking of your resume as a letter or a story (in which you’re the hero), or some other medium, is a great way to start making it fresher, more personal and more effective.