[Porsche-O-Phile]

Yea, I agree. One week seems appropriate, but don't burn bridges either.

The #1 most important question for an employee in a technical position (engineering, architecture, etc.) to ask is "how many people have been 'involuntarily terminated' due to staffing cutbacks in this firm in the last five years". It's an uncomfortable question to ask, but I'd say it's critically important to be able to identify whether a firm is a "we-hire-long-term" kind of operation or a "hire/fire" kind of operation.

There are LOTS of the latter out there, and if you simply ask, the H.R. person (whose job it is to get warm bodies into seats to get such-and-such project done) will simply say "of course we hire long term". Asking the specific question gives you a way to screen out the honest ones from the bull****ters.

Of course, if you're okay with working for a hire/fire place on a "per-project" basis, that's fine too, but for one, I'd have a bit of a hard time putting 100% into such a position. Being able to bolster one's own career growth is a big motivator.