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Well, for my final project in Advanced Drawing, we worked in teams of 4 each, and the teams were chosen at random. My team ended up being the smallest at 3 *At first*, but that didn't bother me any.

What DID bother me was the sheer incompetence of half the team members. One submit almost no work or ideas to the project, the second one *Which was our 4th team member who wasn't there on the first day* kept arguing with me on what the final designs should be AFTER we had come up with the final design idea, and eventually went against our decision on the final design. The fourth team member was fortunately the most competent of all of us, but was debilitated on the 3rd day of our project because he had to go fill in for someone at his work and then had to pull a double shift afterwards. SOMEHOW, he ended up making the best work out of all of us.

I ended up spending more time and energy keeping everyone informed on what we were doing, since no one was ever together at the same time. I lost the 2nd and 3rd day trying to get the other two team members on the same damn level as me and the other guy, and the presentation was on the 4th day, one week after we started the project.

Even though we were being graded as individuals, it still pisses me off that half my team was flaking out half the time by either showing up to class 3 hours late on ALL the days, or just not complying to the team's final design. I need to learn how to work with a team, and it doesn't help if the team members aren't willing to work.

I did 90% of the work for my team for my senior project for my mechanical engineering degree. Write a 70-page report on your own, make four 15-minute PowerPoint presentations, draw 3 CAD model assemblies, and construct the final posterboard of everything, and then you won't feel so teamless.

It's easy for me if I'm working alone. I can do that. The problem is we needed to learn how to work as a team. If I did this alone, it would have been a different story.

The problem is with the industry I'm going into, I need to learn how to work as a team, but the problem is every team I've been in up till now has been a complete disaster. My first one had the entire lot drop from the class *And eventually the school* without telling me, the second one had three people who just sat there with a confused and dumbfounded look the entire class, the third had one guy with a horrible work ethic and another with no ability to follow directions, and then this one, which ended up a lot like the previous, with one actually competent guy.

I can't keep ending up with shit groups like that. That was every group I've had since going to College, and I sure as hell am going to be expected to work with people as a team.

(05-22-2009, 09:59 AM)Wisemon Wrote: [ -> ]I did 90% of the work for my team for my senior project for my mechanical engineering degree. Write a 70-page report on your own, make four 15-minute PowerPoint presentations, draw 3 CAD model assemblies, and construct the final posterboard of everything, and then you won't feel so teamless.

Wow. I would have tried to help with some of that if I was in a group. Oddly enough, I just finished a team project recently. I did lesser work then one guy but a little more then another. And I don't fear public speaking.

Neither do I. In fact, I did most of the talking in this one. You should have seen my speech for the prop designs. I did mine like Billy Mays. Everyone loved it.

Don't worry, it's not your fault you keep finding bad teams and it's not any sort of measure of your team abilities. Once you get into whatever job you want, you'll be finding plenty of competent people, maybe even a good bit better than you at it. (That's when it's time to learn a few new tricks)