Describe A time when you worked in a group

I’d like to talk about a collaborative project I took part in during my third year of university, when my team entered a campus zero-waste design competition. I worked with three classmates from my environmental design programme – each of us brought complementary skills: one was proficient in 3D modelling, another specialised in user research, and the third handled budget and logistics. Our task was to design a low-cost, eco-friendly public facility for the university’s new green zone, and we eventually settled on an upcycled foldable bench made entirely from discarded courier cardboard boxes. We hit a couple of hiccups along the way: first, we struggled to reach a consensus on the product category in the initial stage, with half the team pushing for stationery sets instead of furniture. Later, our first prototype failed the load-bearing test, which meant we had to reinforce the structure with recycled paper tubes at the last minute. We chose to work in a group mainly because the competition required interdisciplinary expertise that no single person could master, and the tight 4-week deadline meant dividing labour was far more efficient. Plus, the synergy of bouncing ideas off each other really elevated the final design. We ended up winning second place, which made all the stress worthwhile.