Meet Joseph Atick, president of Visionics, a Newark, N.J., maker of software that helps computers recognize human faces. He’s had three careers in his 34 years as a mathematical physicist, a computational neuroscientist and a computer software entrepreneur.

Why do some professionals like Mr. Atick seem to have an innate ability to switch careers easily while others need to be pushed to change by some outside force? What is it about their behavior and attitudes, makeup and personal characteristics that make them career change champions?

To answer this question, we interviewed several hundred professionals who have changed careers successfully. Among our conclusions: career change demands an ability to take a leap of faith, superior social skills and a willingness to leave one’s comfort zone. Successful career changers possess identifiable inner resources -- resilience, versatility and an ability to recognize and exploit serendipity -- that enable them to cope well with the cards they’re dealt.

Career change champions also differ from others in how they respond to outside forces. They try and fail. They incorporate these influences and convert them to advantages. They learn what works. They make mistakes and, by trial and error, learn from them quickly.

One trait common to career changers that Mr. Atick amply demonstrates is his willingness to leave his comfort zone. "If you’re always afraid of losing what you have, you’re going to be bound and stuck," Mr. Atick says.

Carole Urich, senior executive vice president at Polaroid Corp. in Boston, is another example. She began her career as a bench chemist and worked her way up the corporate ladder at Polaroid. Her success has been due in part to her ability to develop relationships with colleagues and mentors. Additionally, she has a knack for converting chance events into useful growth experiences.

"I’ve had a lot of mentors. I always seemed to be at the right time and place to move ahead," she says. "I always established a basis of conversation with a wide variety of people."

Additionally, she advanced in part because she understood the corporate world rewards problem solvers. "With all my bosses, I never brought them my problems, but always tried to solve their problems," she says. "I anticipated their problems before they would ask. I know many reclusive technical types wait to be asked to solve problems. I found, on the contrary, that if I wanted to change my work environment, I had to do what the recluses called ‘playing politics.’ I practiced ‘relationship development.’"

John Hermann, an engineering malpractice attorney in Detroit who started as an industrial and mechanical engineer, is an example of what some might call a "career amplifer."

"I wasn’t disgruntled as an engineer," Mr. Hermann says. But, he says, he felt engineering was impersonal and rather narrow. "I see a larger diversity of human behavior and more variability of people in the law than I did in engineering."

He tapped his social skills to expand his horizons. Knowing what he could and couldn’t change, Mr. Hermann redirected his interests into a useful synthesis of his dual engineering and legal interests. By integrating the two, in the process he gained "energy, pleasure and renewal" from his work. Luck had little to do with his career change. "Being around when circumstances came up was less luck than being in tune already," he says.

Are you a career change champion? Test your career versatility by taking the following quiz from our book "Career Renewal" (Academic Press, 1997). Ask yourself to what extent you agree with each statement: never, sometimes or always on a scale of zero to two. Give yourself a zero for never, one for sometimes and two for always. Then add up your points to see how you compare with the career change champions we studied.

1. I intuitively develop abiding relationships with my friends and colleagues.

2. Professional colleagues, mentors, advisers and role models are important in my life.

3. Life is full of random events I attempt to convert to adventures.

4. In my professional and social life, I present my truest and best self.

5. I know what I can change, what I can’t and the difference between them.

6. I redirect my energies, instincts and desires into useful pursuits.

7. Humility is a great virtue.

8. The harder I work, the luckier I get.

9. I work hard and play hard.

10. Decisions I made at important turning points in my career were beneficial to my career.

11. I’m energetic and optimistic about my career and my life.

12. I gain energy, pleasure and renewal from my work or career.

13. Excellent opportunities and offers well-suited to me have come my way as if by chance.

How to score your results: Add up your answers. If your total score is between 20 and 26 points, your career versatility compares favorably with career change champions. A score of less than 20 indicates that you may need consider doing some career calisthenics to exercise your less-favored career muscles.