I Guess All Those Group Projects I Groaned About in Class Weren't a Total Waste of Time

I have always been a self-motivated person. I take projects seriously and I like to get things done well and ahead of time if at all possible. I am a very social person most of the time, but when it comes to academic work I tend to favor solitude. These traits have made group projects over the years often frustrate me. I have wondered about their validity as assignments since my middle school days. I would regret that I couldn't just take on the task myself, and in college it can be very hard to organize everyones schedule in order to meet. Worst of all, if one person doesn't do their part things can go down hill fast.

Yet during my preview into the professional workforce, I discovered how truly often you are working in a group. The document layout work I performed was mostly a solitary undertaking, but gathering all of the information had me meeting with around 15 different people from different departments with different schedules over several months. It was a good experience in patience, communication, and especially organization. Suddenly classroom team projects didn't seem like such a waste after all. And to be honest, my years of serving in restaurants paid off too. I think any customer service job can do wonders to increase your patience level with other human beings because you've already been in contact with t all the varied personality types, and emotional reactions, out there.