Teamwork

Day 199 / 366

When we transition from students to working jobs, one of the biggest things to get used to is how to work well in a team. I have read 1000s of resumes over the years, and almost every fresher writes “good team player” under skills. And almost none of them are.

We rarely get to work as a team at school. If anything, we are actually working against our classmates, in order to get better marks than them and top the class. There is little or no benefit to us if the whole classroom does better. So there is no incentive for students to work with each other and help each other out.

On the other hand, when you are working a job, be it a big corporation or a small startup, you work as a team towards a common goal. It’s not all about the individual performance. If the company as a whole does badly, it would put everyone's job at risk. On the other hand, if the company does well, that would mean bonuses and pay raises for everyone. This is true, especially in startups.

But I get why this is a tough switch to make mentally for most people, it was for me as well when I started my career. Being a team player means that a lot of the time you would need to help a fellow teammate achieve their tasks, without thinking about who will get credit for what. If your boss is intelligent, he would be able to figure out anyways who is making the most contribution towards the team's success, whether it is direct or indirect.