Former Apple executive to professionals: When joining a new company ‘don't judge or compare, then when you have…'

Time of India

6 hours ago

Former
Apple
design director –
Bob Baxley
has warned professionals switching jobs not to carry over the culture of their previous company. 'My biggest point on this topic is that when you go into a new culture you really need to slow down, deeply observe, don't judge or compare, and then when you have a reasonable handle on things, reflect on the best ways to express the values from the old place with behaviors that are appropriate to the new,' he told Business Insider.
Speaking on Lenny's Podcast, Baxley shared a personal lesson from his own career move. He said 'I think my own particular mistake, and I've seen this with some other Apple executives as well, is we went directly from Apple — I left Apple on a Friday and I started
Pinterest
on a Monday'. 'And I didn't give myself time to recalibrate to the Pinterest culture,' he added.
Apple has 'really powerful culture'
Stating that Apple's working environment has a way of sticking with you, he stated that most tech companies have a 'really powerful cultures'. He said 'I came in thinking I was supposed to behave the way I behaved at Apple, which is very direct, fighting hard. It's very — everybody cares about each other, it's never insulting, but it's intense'. 'That's not really where Pinterest was at the time.'
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"You get kind of indoctrinated into all those standards and it's really deep. It infuses all of your behavior and how you conduct yourself in the company, away from the company," he said. "And so, I think it's pretty hard to immigrate successfully from one of those environments to another."
He cited
Hiroki Asai
as a prime example of how taking a break can lead to a smoother transition. Asai, Apple's former Vice President of Global Marketing, took several years off for what he called a 're-wirement' before eventually joining
Airbnb
, according to his LinkedIn profile. Baxley noted that other ex-Apple colleagues who took time off before starting new roles adjusted more easily than those who jumped in immediately, like he did.
He said 'It also should be noted that he had — it was a multi-year gap between the time he left Apple and the time he started Airbnb'.
"At Apple, I think it was Tim or Steve, used to talk about the Apple car wash," he added. "That when you started Apple, they kind of had to take you through the car wash and get off all that stuff that you'd accumulated at other places. It turns out there's a car wash you need to go through when you leave Apple as well."
"The thing I took away from Apple, and I think this is true for anybody changing from one major culture to another, is most likely, the new place hires you because of the values of the organization you left, but not the behaviors," he said.
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