Just a quick counter to the “avoid saying well, at my old company we did this”. A lot of people hire externally to get this perspective, especially if it’s a team that hasn’t grown in a while, but if that’s the case they usually won’t be shy about telling you that. But don’t be attached to how you did things before just see if it opens up new ideas for everyone.
Yes definitely. I think especially if people ask it’s great to tell them as much as they ask for.
I personally did everything I advised not doing in that post, and learned the lessons, so I will just tell you my experience of it, and YMMV.
For me, the downside of telling the war stories was the opportunity cost - I could have spent that time listening, and as the new joiner the information and rapport is way more valuable than the status gained from telling the story and entertaining, impressing, or educating people.
The other downside is that people are eager to please a new joiner. They might sometimes say “Yeah we should do that here! Why don’t you be in charge of it!” But this is just to please you - you don’t actually know enough yet about what is happening in the new company to know if your way will bring value. Now you are busy spearheading a tangent that may have no value rather than continuing climbing the learning curve.
