Taking the right career risks: advancing your career means taking chances. Here's how to play your cards so that you come out a winner every time

THE COMFORT ZONE. YOU remember it. It was that time and place where careers were made by getting the right degree, snaring plum job assignments and then producing results. No, it wasn't easy, but the path to the top made sense. You worked hard, stayed the course and eventually made it. In the end, you got the watch, the party, the works. Your kids would have an easier time, or so you figured.

Fast forward to 1995. With the harsh realities of today's job market, that little vignette may seem more like a trip through the Twilight Zone than any recent time or familiar place. Consider the givens in today's marketplace:

* Companies large and small are continually aiming to achieve best-in-class economics. Translation: They want to do more and make more with less.

* Everyday advances in technology are trampling on jobs that used to require people and technology marches on.

* More firms are buying into the value of contract workers who have fixed terms and can be fired easily. Temping has become the growth industry of the decade and a career unto itself.

In a nutshell: Times have changed, probably for good. If your career strategies haven't changed with the times, start right here, right now. This article will show you how to jettison old patterns and thrive in today's unpredictable, and often unkind, work environment.

"Half research, half roulette." That's what Hal Gieseking says it will take to be successful in 1995 and beyond. Gieseking is president of the Career Advisor, a consulting group in Williamsburg, Va., and co-author of 30 Days to a Good Job. So, if you're not a gambler, rethink your priorities. Getting ahead nowadays depends heavily on your ability to put everything on the line.

In the past, making measured, cautious moves in your career was the surefire prescription for ultimate security and success. But job security is a disappearing phenomenon. Most of the old rules no longer apply. The experts' new mantra: Take a risk. Take a risk. Take a risk.

If the notion of risk-taking in such an unstable environment is too frightening, ask yourself this: "What's scarier, taking charge of my career or living on the unemployment line?" Now, then . . . .

In fact, "not taking any risk is the biggest risk of all," says Gieseking. Carol Kleiman, a nationally syndicated careers columnist for the Chicago Tribune and author of The Career Coach (Dearborn Financial Publishing, Chicago, 1994), agrees. "It's risky to apply for new jobs," she says, "to move to new divisions, to go back to school, to seek a promotion, but to sit still and do nothing is beyond risky. It's downright dangerous and totally self-destructive."

The advice is unanimous as experts put their own spin on the same basic truth. "When I think of career risks, I think about the risk of not redesigning your job when you know it's expendable, not getting out and meeting people who can help you, and not improving and broadening your skills," says Marilyn Moats Kennedy, managing partner of Wilmette, Ill.-based Career Strategies. "Despite all the literature on the need to be proactive, people are not getting it. They're not doing enough, if anything, to get ahead."

However, the following people are doing all that they can to succeed in today's fiercely competitive business world. Their stories are different, but each says a lot about the realities of today's job scene and the daily choices we must make. Approaches and philosophies also differ, but each professional profiled below shares something crucial: a commitment to reassessing their current position and status, while asking themselves what they want and what they're willing to sacrifice to get it. Toward that end they have taken some huge--but carefully calculated--risk's.

LOOKING WHILE WORKING

Rueben Stokes was in an enviable position at Allied Van Lines in Chicago. At 34, he was national sales director for the world's second largest van line. He had been promoted to the post over six more senior managers after only eight months with the company. Stokes had direct access to the president and was just a step away from a vice president's slot. By his own admission, he was "one of the golden boys there."

But when Stokes got a call from a corporate recruiter last March, he listened to what the man had to say. The call was about an opportunity at Ryder Systems, one of the nation's largest full-service transportation companies and an outfit about eight times the size of Allied. Stokes was interested. Although a fast-tracker, Stokes had felt like his career was on hold for the past year. Whenever he inquired about his next step at Allied, he was told: "Don't worry. It's coming. Be patient."

"I'm a black man in his late 30's and I don't have the luxury of being patient," says Stokes, now 37. "I knew I was ready to accept more responsibility."

So, despite his plum spot at Allied, Stokes pursued the opportunity with Miami-based Ryder Systems Inc. "There are people who will never take a risk, who will never realize their full potential because of it," Stokes says, explaining his decision. "Personally, I like to take risks. I'm a salesman. I like to put myself in unfamiliar situations to see how I'll do. There's a certain amount of excitement in seeing what's on the other side."