Amber Nichols was bored. She'd been a director of nursing for 13 years and dreamed of moving into pharmaceutical sales. "I work a lot with pharmaceutical sales reps and I believe I'd be good in that job," she said. "But I have no idea how to make this career transition. All I've ever done is nursing and now I'm stumped as to what I should do next."

One look at Ms. Nichols's career plan and resume shows why her search had been unsuccessful. Any employer would have assumed she wanted another position as director of nursing. Her lack of personal vision was holding back her job search. She hadn't imagined herself in this new position at all. The result was a document that lacked focus and an objective.

Your resume is a reflection of who you are and what you want. Ms. Nichols wanted to change careers, but her "before" resume didn't reflect her confidence in her ability to make the switch successfully. Instead, she plodded along in her job search, hoping someone would recognize her potential as a sales representative.

To prepare a new resume, she followed these five steps:

1. Use creative visualization. Before you write a single word, center yourself. Focus your attention on your goal and visualize the position you want. Try a simple contemplation technique. The exercise is similar to meditation, but you're a more active participant. First, imagine yourself performing a task. Next, imagine you already have the job of your dreams. For 15 to 20 minutes, picture yourself in this job.

2. Plan a career strategy. Design a career map that lists your goals and the steps necessary to reach them. Then, research the companies in which you're interested and contact the decision-makers and other key players in the industry you're targeting. Network with business professionals who might be able to help you. These are the key elements to planning a proactive career strategy.

3. Set high, but realistic goals. Ms. Nichols had set a high goal to obtain a position as a pharmaceutical sales rep. Given her qualifications, it was attainable. But many professionals aren't this realistic. For example, if you barely made it through college, hated biology and science classes and don't enjoy working with people, it's not feasible to believe you could be a brain surgeon.

Don't laugh. Some individuals, executives and professionals included, live in fantasy worlds and aren't realistic about their own abilities. Re-evaluate your goals and dreams. "If you can dream it, you can become it," is a worthy credo, but your dreams need to be aligned with reality.

4. Attend to attention. Learn how to listen. To truly listen, you must be aware of the moment and pay attention to details. When rewriting her resume, Ms. Nichols thought about the details in her job as a director of nursing that would be relevant to a position in pharmaceutical sales. By including these in her revised resume, she focused her document on qualities that made her marketable.

5. Appeal to the heart. Your resume is your sales tool. You need to capture the reader's eye while remaining tasteful and professional. You have only about 10 seconds to grab someone's attention, so make every second count. You must make the reader interested in reading more, so it's important that your resume looks professional, is well-written and contains your heart and soul.

Ms. Nichols's "before" resume that she'd been sending to pharmaceutical companies had no objective. In other words, she hadn't focused on a particular goal. With some coaching, she was able to use these techniques to achieve her goals. She used creative visualization to see herself in her new job. She networked with pharmaceutical sales reps and researched pharmaceutical companies. She set high, realistic goals and paid attention to details when highlighting her qualifications and ability to build and nurture client relationships in the medical field.

After preparing an appealing, attractive resume, Ms. Nichols sent 100 resumes to the top companies in the industry. Within three weeks she had two job offers -- each accompanied by a $20,000 pay hike and outstanding perks.

-- Ms. Peerce is vice president of writing services and Mr. Cochran is president and founder of the Heart & Soul Career Center in Nashville, Tenn. They're the co-authors of "Heart & Soul Resumes" (1998, Davies-Black Publishing).