Do you prefer working on your own or as part of a team?
Teamwork is all the rage. Universities place a lot of emphasis on team project work, and technology companies are full of teams: project teams, functional teams, special problem-solving teams, and teams within teams. There is little doubt that teamwork is necessary to avoid dropping the ball as a product is handed off from one team to another during development. Errors resulting from gray areas not covered during handoffs are a common source of eventual problems with a product. It is also conventional wisdom that teams always produce better outcomes. But an interviewer is going to want to know that while you can work as a part of a team, you can also think independently and be a contributor to a team, not just the hanger-on who lets the other guy do all the work in Electronics 301 Lab.
"I recognize the value of both. If you can't work independently, you cannot bring anything unique to a team, and the whole reason that teams produce good outcomes is because of the independent contributions of the members. What I love about working as part of a team is the way other people can see problems with your ideas that you didn't pick up on. This is a valuable way to prevent poorly conceived plans from advancing. You can usually count on someone to notice the holes. You can also usually count on someone to offer a solution to a problem that comes up, or at least the idea for an approach. The problem can be, though, that team members may be preoccupied with their own problems, and just nod along to whatever you may say. Then, later, when things go wrong, they may say, 'Well, it was YOUR responsibility.' And that's true. And that's why I also like to have some time to work alone, to check my own work, and my own biases.
There are some people who are the 'mad scientist' type who just want to be left alone in their laboratories to work. And actually, in my opinion, that has value too. These are often people with fabulous technical skills and maybe not-so-strong people skills. But they can still make their contribution - even an outsized contribution to the organization. Truly, this matter of whether you like to work alone or in teams is an example of the clich?, 'It takes all kinds.' I recognize, though, that the personality has to be matched to the function."
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