I hate teamwork. Rant.

[Lufia Erim]

So i just had a group interview for a job today. It was the first time i experienced something like that, and it was absolutely terrible. Not necessarily for anyone else, but for me personally. You see, I'm very asocial. So much so that it is one of my greatest flaws. I cannot function in a group. Had i had a one on one onterview i would have lit a fire under their asses. As if interviews aren't stressful enough, we were 10 people simultaneously being interviewed for the same position. Having all those people around me cut my charisma/speechcraft in half.

I get that we are in a society that (rightfully) valorises social skills, it's just that some people have that more easily than others. And i find it is hard as someone who literally gets stressed out with as little as striking up a conversation with a complete stranger. Or having someone i don't know ask me a harmless question.

The main reason i quit college wasn't because it was too hard or i didn't get good grades, but because i literally couldn't cope with having to do group work. I hated it. And not because my team wasnt good or did their work poorly. I just couldn't handle being with a group of people.

And its a shame too because literally everything requires a set amount of teamwork nowadays, and people like me have trouble finding jobs ( i have one but im not too low on the asocial ladder) not because they are incompetent but because they lack the capacity to make a mark as easily as others.

I'm not blaming anyone for my own shortcomings in regards to my inability to socialize ( apart maybe my mother but that's another story) this is just a rant about being asocial in a social world.

 

[Fappy]

Any situation where you actively see applicants you're competing against is bullshit. You should not come face-to-face with others vying for the same position. For some jobs (such as in acting), I supposed it is unavoidable, but good employers know to avoid that kind of thing.

As for not working well with others... well, if you can't do teamwork that's going to severely limit career prospects. Self employment and/or contracting work are some of your best avenues career-wise. A lot of trade jobs don't require much teamwork too.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Ok what sort of job that interview was?

The last time I had one of those group interviews (I didn't like it either) was at this UK retail/ catalogue retail store. Sure I guess it make sense why they had one but in saying so that was the only retail store that had a group interviews among the vacanies I had apply.

 

[sky14kemea]

I've found that every group interview I've been for has been for a shady sounding job anyway... They're usually looking for someone who can act confident and competitive and use other peoples answers to their advantage.

Could be just my bad luck that the interviewers purposely didn't tell me it was a group interview until I was already there.

I'm not super social but I can act friendly enough in team environments. I'd rather try and make friends with everyone and then feel huge anxiety that they secretly hate me, than staying quiet and having them almost ignore me.

:'D

 

[Neverhoodian]

Well, that's what happens when you're an introvert living in an extrovert's world. Sucks I know (I'm an introvert myself), but you just gotta roll with the punches as best you can. If it's any help, smiling and maintaining eye contact with the interviewer goes a long way on its own.

My biggest issue with group projects and activities is that you can never fully depend on everyone. There's ALWAYS some slacker that doesn't give a rat's ass about putting forward some actual effort, resulting in folks like me working extra hard to make up the difference (usually to little or no recognition).

 

[Lufia Erim]

Ok what sort of job that interview was?

The last time I had one of those group interviews (I didn't like it either) was at this UK retail/ catalogue retail store. Sure I guess it make sense why they had one but in saying so that was the only retail store that had a group interviews among the vacanies I had apply.

It was to work in a hospital cafeteria. Pays really well and tons of benefits. I have prior experience in such a job. And i have little doubt i would have aced a solo interview. Again I'm not blaming anyone else for the fact i suck in group anything.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Well, that's what happens when you're an introvert living in an extrovert's world. Sucks I know (I'm an introvert myself), but you just gotta roll with the punches as best you can. If it's any help, smiling and maintaining eye contact with the interviewer goes a long way on its own.

My biggest issue with group projects and activities is that you can never fully depend on everyone. There's ALWAYS some slacker that doesn't give a rat's ass about putting forward some actual effort, resulting in folks like me working extra hard to make up the difference (usually to little or no recognition).

So much this. I have no problem failing at something because I screwed up. However when a team suffers because of one person i can't stand it.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

What the hell is a "group interview?"

Maybe it's because I've never worked in the service industry but I've never had or even heard of anything like that.

That seems pretty fucking awful, and I say that having had some pretty awful interviews in my time (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.863758-Weirdly-racist-job-interview-updated).

But yeah, I think the easiest way to pass an interview is to just appear relaxed. If you don't get flustered you come off looking more professional, and like you know more than you actually do. Kind of hard if you get completely blindsided by some weird interview tactic like this.

 

[Mudman1234]

My last job interview was piss easy. The interviewer was late and when she finally rocked up her first words were "You start Monday".

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I've honestly never even heard of a "Group interview".

I've heard of being put on probationary periods to see if you can work with others as a team, but never in the actual interview part of it. Especially considering you're supposed to be competing with these folks, it seems to somewhat fly in the face of the 'work together as a group' idea at that particular moment.

But anyway, as someone mentioned earlier, sorry, but unless you're a writer or someone genius enough to make their living working just about completely solo, working with others is a fact of life. Better get used to it.

 

[Batou667]

Sorry, but I don't have a whole load of sympathy. I certainly don't think it's justified to say the interview was flawed or that they cheated you out of the job, or whatever. Isn't it obvious that the group format of the interview may have been a deliberate decision to best showcase the role's key skills? Hospital staff very often *will* have to make themselves heard over a crowd and be assertive with troublesome individuals while remaining tactful and part of a team. If you couldn't handle the interview for whatever reason, you may not have been suited to the role; and having the interview in your preferred format (one-on-one, essay, interpretive Jazz, whatever) would have merely succeeded in getting you into a job that wasn't right for you which would have been little long-term benefit for either you or the company.

Keep applying for jobs, possibly ones that have more of a focus on independent work if that's your thing. But for God's sake please drop the self-defeating "asocial" label - ye gads, what a pessimistic self-descriptor. Everybody has it in them to be social and collaborative. Don't sabotage your own chances.

 

[bluegate]

I take it you are seeing professional help regarding these issues?

Having your life disrupted to the point where you are forced to drop out of college is rather serious business. And as the guy above me said; don't use such a pessimistic self-descriptor.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

In my experience I've found the toughness of the interview to be inversely proportional to the importance of the job. My first interview was similar to the OP where I had to compete with like ten other people to work at a "Wal-Mart" type store. I "won" but I ended up not taking the job because I was competing against like single parents and I was some high school asshole who needed a job for beer money.
I've since interviewed at hospitals and pharmacies and found them much more low key , so just keep at it

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I'm wondering what the point of doing job interviews like that is. What kind of job is it? They really don't do that kind of interview where I'm at, at least never heard of it being done.

It would only promote the biggest asshole being chosen for the job anyhow. Unless the interviewer is really savvy him- / herself.

What we usually do is to do a solo interview, then present the person to the team they'll be working with and letting them have a go with him / her. The impressions of the team are just as important as the interview itself, but the person being interviewed might not notice that immediately.

 

[CeeBod]

I went to an assessment day as part of the recruitment for BAE Systems, and that included a similar group interview - we were given a task and asked to solve it as a group, whilst surrounded by assessors taking notes on everything we did and said. It felt decidedly weird, but having spoken to one of my assessors afterwards (I got the job), it was mostly used to weed out those that could test very well, but would be awful at teamwork. So it's not just used in the service industry or by sketchy companies, BAES is the 3rd biggest defence company in the world.

There are jobs around that don't need teamwork, but even those that have traditionally been seen as solitary pursuits, like research, can still rely on an ability to work with others. Sorry, but humans are social animals and if you can't do teamwork you will at least have to learn how to fake it!

 

[Cycloptomese]

I've never experienced that before but it sounds like hell on earth. I'm socially inept to the point that I can't wait for drone pizza delivery.

 

[kurupt87]

Having your life disrupted to the point where you are forced to drop out of college is rather serious business. And as the guy above me said; don't use such a pessimistic self-descriptor.

Being asocial/introverted isn't a bloody pessimistic description. It's either a depressed person trying to rationalise, or an asocial/introverted person. So, standard internet-look-at-me or a plain statement of fact.

I am asocial/introverted, it is part of my personality that does not gel well with this mega social world but I wouldn't change it. I am also extremely tall but still a mesomorph, this planet we have sculpted is not sized to include my head.

One of those is pointlessly seen as a negative, the other a positive.

People are different. Most get sad when alone, some get sad when not. Different doesn't mean worse, don't patronise or pity.

OT: Friendliness is a sought after trait in customer facing staff, especially in a hospital. So, unless you were interviewing for behind the scenes in the kitchen I can understand the format. Mostly, when employers ask about teamwork they want to know that you're not a monstrous arsehole and that their current staff will be able to work with you.

All I can recommend would be to straight up tell them that you're shy, asocial has negative connotations whereas shy people are "safe".

 

[teqrevisited]

I'd have to agree that group interviews are not something that should continue. I'm not someone who typically goes in search of social interactions at work so I started by being the one who spoke to everyone that I knew I would be working with on the first day. The ones who shared vaguely similar interests ended up coming to talk with me after that and then I had reasons to start the conversations myself. A lot of the time I do end up blanking people when I'm busy though they got used to it after a while. It helps that once I do eventually get settled I can start to gradually unleash my sense of humour.


I think the worst I've seen this kind of thing affect someone is when I went to an interview for a well-known budget food shop. Around 6 people including myself had turned up, suits and smart dress et cetera. We filed in and I found myself sat next to a woman who couldn't have been much younger than me. We then had to do the whole 'tell me a bit about yourself' bit and so on. I lost a couple of words myself but I managed to put a decent enough statement together. Then it was her turn and I honestly didn't know where to look. She had her head angled down looking between her lap and the table we were all seated at and I just had to awkwardly sit there and stifle the crushing defeat that I felt coming from just inches away. I felt so bad for her.

 

[Loonyyy]

You need to work with others for most jobs. If it cut your charisma in half, well, I'm sorry, but that demonstrates pretty well how you'd handle a group dynamic.

I feel a lot of sympathy for you, I was very asocial right up until college, all through schooling up till just before my 18th birthday. It only changed because I decided to change it, and it'll be the same for you. I still feel uncomfortable in a lot of social situations, but you learn strategies to deal with it, and how to properly interact with people and groups of people, especially strangers. You just have to work on it. It's really easy to isolate yourself, and reinforce that prejudice. Don't do that. All you'll do is make it harder to gain these skills later, and they are skills, make no mistake. They're useful skills, and valuable aspects to a person.

I had to work on it, and develop some charisma and people skills. And eventually, using a few of them helped me land a job, which gave me more of a chance to expand those skills.

Yeah, some people have it easy. I have a friend, a complete moron, he's not clever, he's not skilled, he's not qualified, his opinions are straight from the papers and the culture around him. There's not an original thought in his head. He's fucking smooth as fuck though. He can change to make anyone like him, and charms like a ************. I know what he's doing, and I still like hanging out with him, because he's just charismatic. And it's gotten him pretty far. Basically his social skills have helped him along his careerpath, despite having no skills. Yeah, he's lucky, but there's nothing I can do about that. Instead, I can see that he's got something that I want, that I need, and do something about it. Change myself. If you envy something, make yourself better. You don't have to be the slickest person, you just have to hold your own. I'm sure you've got your own skills, your own merits. All you have to do is be able to socialise well enough to let those shine. If you can destroy a one on one interview, then you have the requisite skills, you just need to be able to handle a group environment.

Look, being totally blunt, being asocial, lacking social skills, is a serious disadvantage, and it's something you almost certainly can work on. It sucks, and it's hard, but it's the only way to get better. I did it as a young adult, it was a fucking nightmare, but now at least I can hold my own, and that's all you need. It's something you need to do, because it will help you massively in the long run, and it will get easier as you go. I know many people who've changed, who've improved themselves, and I know a bunch who haven't, and it's just tragic. They miss out. They miss out on careers, they miss out on people, and they miss out on life, and it's all for the sake of their comfort zone, even when it's hurting them. Don't do that, don't be that. I've said it to you before, and I mean it, it's easy to take comfort in it, just hide away, or even take pride in it and dismiss people, and it's not worthwhile. If you need help, consider consulting a psychologist, councilor, or health professional.