You've found the right job. The pay looks good, the people appear nice and your interviewer seems to love you. So wooed by this new job are you that all you want do is scribble your name onto the dotted line. Take it easy there cowboy, great pay and people are terrific, but there’s a lot more to a job than these. What’s the fine print? How can you be sure your dream job today won’t become the trials of Sisyphus rolling a boulder up hill six months from now? Here’s how you can be sure: take a moment to ask some simple questions of your new would-be employer. The answers could be the difference between job “yes” and job “no thanks.”

All About the Bennies:

Benefits can make or break a job, yet surprisingly so few of us find out what benefits come with a new job until our first day at work. Filling out your paperwork with the HR manager is no time to discover the company doesn’t offer a 401K. Health insurance is a primary expense for most people, and the kind of coverage you get can be crucial. Sure this new job pays $2,000 more than your current one, but it might cost you far more than that just to make up for the substandard health benefits. Some employers offer excellent low rates for the employee, but the rates skyrocket once family members are added.

I’m Working Until When?

Your new office may have standard office hours, but that doesn’t mean those are the hours you will be working. For many workers, a 9 to 5 workday is little more than wishful thinking. Sure, your potential employer would be happy to have you only work 40 hours a week, but in reality your new job takes more than 40 hours a week. Ask your interviewer honestly what an average workweek for your predecessor looked like. Do weekends and evenings ever come into play? Then, as you make the rounds to meet others (hopefully unescorted by the big boss), get a second opinion. Don’t just assume, know what kind of time the job actually requires.

Where Will I Work?

Believe it or not, this is one that trips up many a new hire. You interview in one location and then, after accepting the job, you discover you will be working in another branch—45 minutes away. Businesses in which these can be especially true include banks and management positions in franchise restaurants. If you are in sales, you may be used to staying out of the office, but you might want to see how far you will be expected to roam. Many sales positions are broken up into geographic regions. How big will yours be and how much gas and time will it eat up to traverse it?

Money Vs. Move:

You may find yourself interviewing for a job located in a different city. You may in fact find yourself interviewing for a job located in a city you’re willing to move to. The salary offer is higher than what you make now, so in your head your bags are already packed. More money is always nice, but is more really more? How does the new salary stack up against the cost of moving and, more importantly, the cost of living in the new city? For example, imagine you make $30,000 a year in Portland, Oregon and you are considering a job in San Francisco that pays $45,000. Thanks in no small part to San Francisco’s phenomenally higher cost of housing, you would have to earn $60,401 to live the same life you do in Portland on thirty grand. Your $15,000 upgrade just became a $15,000 deficit.