You’ve got a job offer. Brilliant! Before you accept and break out the bubbles, take time to check that it genuinely fits your bill.

Whether or not you’ve made a complete career change, the first few weeks at a new job can be challenging. Here are 8 ways to a smarter, smoother fresh start.

Career changers are confronted by lots of scary ideas. One of these is the ‘sticky stat’ that 80% of jobs never get advertised. It is certainly true that people ‘in the know’ fill lots of brilliant career openings that never get advertised. However the 80% statistic is a relic of the ‘pre-Internet’ 1980s‘ and is now is seriously dodgy.

Despite the similarities, we don’t usually approach job applications as a form of performance art. In fact, winning any kind of role – vocational or theatrical, depends in large part (pun intended) on honing a set of wow worthy auditioning skills.