Science, Religion, Politics and in the pursuit of truth – HappyPsychotic

So you go for a technical interview and so often we are asked:

Tell me of an occasion when you worked well as part of a team

Bleh – I just vomited in my mouth a little bit.

This question assumes that working as a part of a team is some great thing – I have a slightly different opinion, let’s weight the pro’s and con’s of team development.

Pros for working within a team

• You can slack off sometimes if you need to take a break
• You can leech off of other people’s talent
• You can possibly received reward and credit for work you did not do
• You can possibly received reward and credit for ideas that you did not have
• You get to attend parties, lunches and such
• You get a warm feeling of group mentality, driven into us by eons of evolution
• If you are super lucky to be working with open minded people (say less that 1%), that you may be able to bounce idea’s off of one another for a more refined general solution.

I guess I should have pointed out that this list is from a perspective of not the top programmer on the team – and the difference between top and bottom talent is of the order of magnitude of 10-20 times, not the management perceived value of say 1.5 times. The one legit point at the end I would like to add, the idea discussion, work without a team as well however, as any smart friend should be able to help you with minimal introduction to the problem at hand.

If you are thinking, well that’s ok, I am the top developer on my team, I just ask you to consider that there is only 1 top developer, the rest are losers – odds are you are a loser.

So let’s look at some of the cons next.

Cons for working within a team

• You have to interact with other people – yuck – I like computers better
• You have to rely on people – and people are notoriously unreliable
• The more team members that are present, the more time that is wasted in interacting with others as opposed to being productive (Read the Mythical Man Month for a more detailed discussion on the topic)
• All of this leads to decreased productivity per person
• If you are one to take responsibility for your actions, then you often have to shoulder the responsibility load of those who do not pull their own weight as well on the project.

I think this is all pretty accurate so far, but far from exhaustive.

The optimal solution

So what is the optimal solution then? The obvious answer is a team of 1!

I really prefer to work on my own. Communication is kept to a bare minimum, and I prefer to take all the responsibility of the success or failure of the project, I prefer never to blame others.

I can’t wait for the next ‘Team’ question in an interview – I wonder how the I hate working in a team will fly! With the proper justification for your answer, you may just end up wowing the interview into making you an offer on the spot!

So ask yourself – do you have a nagging thought that working with others sucks? If so, then you may be the best programmer on the team. If you feel that you enjoy the team atmosphere, then keep leeching, you will go far as well on the coat tails of the stronger developers around you.