Before you tweak that resume, consider this:

Are you looking for work, or are you looking for a job?

The two may seem interchangeable, but they're not - at least not if you know yourself.

That idea is what underlies a contrarian bit of advice for job-seekers from Philip Page, the author of Getting Up Again: Surviving Unemployment and Pursuing Destiny.

Page, himself a survivor of unemployment, came to the realization that what he wanted was not just a paycheck, but a purpose: a job that matched what he saw as his reason for working. He embarked on a spiritual journey that brought him to God and enabled him to focus on the why of work as well as the what.

This, in turn, led him to decide that the last thing he should do is revise his resume every time he applied for a job. Instead, he tailored his resume to fit the kind of work that fulfilled him and used that to apply for whatever job he thought would do that.

While his insight came out of his spiritual journey, he still recommends that job-seekers use their resume as a statement even if they are not inclined to look deep inside themselves for their career focus. "It boils down to the old saying, 'If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there,'" he told me. Put more practically, his reasons against resume tweaking are:

Your resume is presentation of yourself, and that's something that doesn't change. "If you take the time to create a resume," he said, "then I believe you will not be satisfied with just work - you actually want a job. And the only way to find what you're looking for is to take control of your search, be proactive and apply with intention."

By which he means: You need to communicate the kind of work you feel you are best suited for in your resume and be consistent about doing so. "A tweaked resume makes you into a jack of all trades and a master of none," he said. "With unemployment near 10 percent and a struggling economy, it's foolish to think that anyone can compete with 100 other applicants in an area that isn't your strong suit."

The man has a point. Most career fields, including retail, are broad enough to encompass a wide variety of jobs, and not everyone looking for a job in the field will find every job in it suitable to their personality, work style and temprament. Having a resume that clearly communicates who one is as a person may lead to not being considered for some jobs, but makes it more likely that when one does find a job, it will be one that proves truly satisfying and fulfilling.

I will confess that I still find this advice somewhat puzzling in an age when employers use computers to scan resumes for keywords and reject those that lack the ones they're looking for. It would seem only prudent to use those tactics that increase the chance that your own resume will make it past the robot gatekeepers and into the hands of a human. Yet Page's advice has the virtue of integrity: It asks that you, the job-seeker, be honest with yourself about who you are and what you want out of your work. It's worth considering for that reason alone.

Check out retailgigs.com for an extensive resource on job opportunities, career seeking solutions, and career advancement tips.

By: Sandy Smith

Sandy Smith is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his career in public relations and corporate communications. His work has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia CityPaper, PGN, and a number of Web sites. Philly-area residents may also recognize him as "MarketStEl" of discussion-board fame. He has been a part of the great reserve army of freelance writers since January 2009 and is actively seeking opportunities wherever they may lie.