Core Value : Team

I would say that the core value that resonates most deeply with me is working as an active Team Member. Throughout my academic and professional career, I have been given many opportunities to work by myself and in a team and I have always produced a far better product in a shorter amount of time when I have worked in a team.

As a biology research assistant working on my Honors Thesis at James Madison University, I had the opportunity to work closely with another research assistant named Heath Davis. Heath and I constantly bounced ideas off each other while creating the initial design for our experiments. Once the experiments were under way, we were able to work together and split up the vital aspects of the experiment so that we could work concurrently and get the experiment done in half the time and with more focus on each aspect than either of us could have done individually. Within this team dynamic, I was always the one to lead the organization and time management; however, Heath had the technical skills necessary to troubleshoot many problems we ran into.

As a senior staff member of the James Madison Computing Helpdesk, working in a team environment has always been crucial to solving each individual’s problem. Early on I learned that no one member of our team had all the answers and that even though I had been working for many years at the Helpdesk, I couldn’t answer every question. However, the combined knowledge of our group allowed us to easily and quickly answer each question and as a whole we were able to broaden our knowledge of computer systems.

Besides answering questions, being part of a team also meant being there for other team members. Whether it was just letting a team member vent or filling in for a sick team member, I feel that I have pushed myself to be there for other employees in their time of need and I feel that it has been a crucial part of being a good team member. Another major role of a good team member is being able to play around. Not all work has to be boring and tedious and I have tried to bring humor and light attitude to the workplace to raise team members’ spirits. Every day before I come to work, I make sure to choose my attitude and understand that how I act will affect other team members and even customers. When I look over the core values which make me an exceptional candidate, I truly believe that being a team player and understanding what it means is vital to my own personal core values and I think that it is the one that truly embodies who I am.

 

- Craig Esquivel