If you do not already have a job description, ask for one, and then try to define as clearly as you can the boundaries of your job. You are not seeking to establish the minimum acceptable benchmarks, but frontiers within which you can make your best contribution. Do this constructively and as soon as you can. The first month is ideal. Six months later is too late; your questions will be interpreted rather less generously.

Find out:

• The limits of your authority.
• The parameters and main objectives of your job.
• The expectations of your superiors and colleagues.
• The kind of feedback you will receive from superiors.
• The limits of your responsibilities - personnel, products, services etc.
• The way your job meshes into any quality system in use.
• The resources you will have.
• The priorities in the job and the proportion of your time you should be giving to each.
• The main problem areas and the 'uniqueness' of the job.