Do you prefer working in a team or by yourself?

Question: Do you prefer working in a team or by yourself?
- Keywords:
  preference,
  routine,
  work
Asked by blossom1999 to Alan, Deepak, Francesca, Lilly, Nick on 10 Mar 2014.
- Deepak Kar answered on 10 Mar 2014:
  
  Good question!
  
  I would say both. Some projects I do all by myself, but then on some other projects, I need ideas and advice from other folks. It is a good training to know how to work in a team, because everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and also very strong preferences oftentimes.
- Francesca Day answered on 10 Mar 2014:
  
  I prefer working by myself because I like to have the freedom to do what I want! But I do also like to chat to people about my work. I wouldn’t get very far without help from other people!
- Alan Fitzsimmons answered on 10 Mar 2014:
  
  A bit of both!
  
  As a scientist you do a lot if things by yourself, because even in a team everyone normally has specific tasks or jobs that need to be done.
  
  Sometimes you do things by yourself because you have a problem you need to solve yourself, or maybe you’re working on a new piece of science you haven’t told anyone about yet.
  
  But teams are great, because getting lots of scientists together means they can tell each other what they are doing and come up with new ideas.
  
  Last week for example, I worked in Switzerland with other scientists from Europe and America. We were trying to work out what happens to comets that get so close to the Sun that rock melts, and we came up with several ideas to investigate just by talking and doing a few calculations!
- Nick Wright answered on 11 Mar 2014:
  
  I prefer working in a team because then you get to use everybody’s expertise to get your job done. I’m not brilliant at everything and so I like to work with other people who are good at the things I’m not good at. That’s one of the great things about science, you don’t have to be great at everything to be able to do science!
- Lilian Hunt answered on 13 Mar 2014:
  
  I like being an individual in a team 🙂 That way I get to do the work I want but still have people around me to go to when I need help or advice and I can be there for them too. I’ve always been able to work well in a team (I play rugby!) but once in a while doing something on your own is a nice break!

Question: Do you prefer working in a team or by yourself?

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