Chasing Indie: Team Projects in the University & Indie Scene
Finding people to work on projects with can be difficult at the best of times. This is also the case while at university (and in the indie scene as a whole). The immediate assumption that you will be surrounded by similarly minded individuals is not entirely correct, so most people would consider university to be a great place to have extracurricular activities on the go. With employment looming, and the very real need to have a portfolio to even get noticed, why then can it be so hard to find reliable team members? And which ones should you snap up and aim to work with? There are several factors that I have found to have heavy influence on this:
LAZINESS
This one is probably the most obvious, but surprisingly hasn't impacted me or my work much. Students are generally incredibly lazy, and given the choice of bed or the trip into lectures, you will find bed will win a lot of the time.
The reason why it hasn't had much effect on me, is that usually the lazier folk just aren't interested in working on anything other than their university work. Because of this I never factor them into the team equation.
BAD WORK ETHIC
For me, this one is huge. As an individual, I want to succeed to the best of my ability. Surprisingly this isn't the default stance for a lot of students. Several times I have seen my friends/peers aim for the minimum marks to succeed in their work.
That is a personal choice and is up to them. However, I am reluctant to work with people who only want to coast by. If a person only wants to put in minimal effort to something as important as their education, it is a fair surmise to think that they will do the same with anything else they are working on. So when people with self proclaimed bad work ethic wish to work with me on a project, I politely refuse their services.
PROCRASTINATION
By far the greatest hindrance to extracurricular projects are the procrastinators. These people are the ones that display excitement for ideas, enthusiasm to be a part of them, but then never materialize with work or have only done a fraction of what you were hoping. There is no way of knowing if someone is a procrastinator until you work with them, but the effects of these individuals are far reaching.
There is nothing worse than delegating tasks, having individuals taking responsibility for those tasks, and then three weeks later asking those individuals for an update and them having nothing to show. It can damage morale, and make you wonder why you are even trying. A lot of the time you end up having to do these tasks yourself, or spend a lot of time pushing people to get them working. This can be exhausting, as not only are you trying to work on your own tasks, but you are having to drag others to do theirs.
When the procrastinators do the work however, they are invaluable. This leads to them being somewhat of a double edged sword.
It's not all bad though. Not everyone falls into these categories. So who should you be aiming to work with?
PASSION IS WORTH MORE TO YOU THAN TALENT (unless you can get both!)
When I am on the lookout for individuals to work with, I am not always looking for talent. I am passionate about my need to design and make my ideas, which drives my enthusiasm to work and my willingness to invest time in doing so. I may not be the most naturally gifted at what I do, but you can be damn well sure that I will throw myself at my work until I succeed in it.
Which means that when I am looking for teammates to work with, I am looking for people that share a drive similar to my own. Passionate people may not have the skill, but they keep smashing away at things until the job gets done. Their abilities also grow and evolve the most over time, which means that their value only ever increases. The readiness they have to jump in and try new things can also spur you into doing the same, and it encourages productivity as you work off each other and problem solve together.
Occasionally you will find that rare unicorn of a person who is both talented and passionate, but they are always few and far between. Also they tend to already have massive workloads of their own creation, so it is not always fair to rely too heavily on them.
On the other side of this, sometimes you will have people that are extremely talented, but don't share in that passion. I have found that these individuals have a certain lethargic approach to their work. As much as I appreciate beautifully polished work, I would prefer to have the involvement.
So in summary, when it comes to finding people to work with at university (and in the indie scene in general), I will always look for the people that are driven by the love and passion of what they do. Talent should not be the deciding factor of a prospective team members worth, and if you give the furiously creative novices a chance then they might genuinely surprise you!
These are just my thoughts on the subject, and I welcome anyone else to share their own thoughts/criticisms in the comments!