"Become a part of the culture before trying to influence it"
This is a tricky balancing act, because sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can be helpful, but OMG! I have recent experience with a new hire that needed to be shown that point. Everything he saw he declared the stupidest thing ever. "Why is X built with Y, when it could just be done with Z?"
He changed his tune after a month or two and gained some background knowledge of the engineering tradeoffs involved... but not before he burned many bridges in the process.
Were I to give him a word of advice back then, it would be to archive his rants in a text file, sit on them for 6 months, THEN go off at the mouth. He'd have more background to prevent him from committing some serious newbie faux pas, and enough credibility for his better arguments to be heard.
This is a tricky balancing act, because sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can be helpful, but OMG! I have recent experience with a new hire that needed to be shown that point. Everything he saw he declared the stupidest thing ever. "Why is X built with Y, when it could just be done with Z?"
He changed his tune after a month or two and gained some background knowledge of the engineering tradeoffs involved... but not before he burned many bridges in the process.
Were I to give him a word of advice back then, it would be to archive his rants in a text file, sit on them for 6 months, THEN go off at the mouth. He'd have more background to prevent him from committing some serious newbie faux pas, and enough credibility for his better arguments to be heard.