Efficiency: What do you do with Colonist #3?

[EscapeZeppelin]

Colonist one cuts and grows plants, colonists two and three are miners and builders. Colonist four is tasked with cleaning, cooking, and hauling when they have a free moment. I generally don't do any research until I have four or more colonists.

[christhekiller]

It actually depends where I start. Like if I start in a mountainy area I'll definitely have a miner, and then my builder and my grower will be the same guy. I'll also want to have a guy whose great at social so that I can easily-ish recruit new guys and expand my ranks. Not having a good socialite can really be a pain in the arse. Also a doctor, definitely, definitely need a doctor. And one of them has to have at least a 7 shooting skill, otherwise that Lee enfield is just wasted.

So my first three would be:
Miner or builder
Grower or Grower/ builder
Social/ Doctor
+Someone whose good at shooting

Needless to say EdBs prepare carefully mod is a god send

[200Down]

Depends on region, temp, derelict buildings, and size of nearby hills/mountains if any.

Here's my priority preferences on colonists, at least the important stuff(Sure wish it was 8 points instead of the 4 point scale though)

Colonist #1 = 2Fire, 1Surgery, 2Patient, 3Warden, 3Cook, 3Grow, 3Cut.
Colonist #2 = 1Fire, 4Surgery, 1Patient, 2Build, 2Cut, 3Repair   
Colonist #3 = 1Fire, 4Surgery, 1Patient, 3Craft, 3Haul, 3Clean, Anything Else that's needed

No mining? Nope Had my fill of underground living in DF sadly. At least for the time being Pretty much everyone is mining 4 if it's needed.

[XelNigma]

It often breaks down to one person with social and doctoring, another with cooking and shooting, and the last with cooking and doctoring.  My "main cook" i try to have the highest shooting to handle the rifle from a safe distance. Seeing as cooking is basically a full time job I dont want them to have another job like delivering food, growing food, or healing the injured.

I ignore mining as I often play open maps. I can see that being an important skill if you want to make your base in a mountain but I prefer the plains i dont need it early on.

[BetaSpectre]

I usually have all my colonists build, farm, or gather meals during this time TBH.

Mining and building mostly. I often times get close to the starving point for my people (Going mad due to low happiness.)

[Zankor]

I like to categorize tasks by how much time they consume. For me there are 4 tasks / skills that require very high to all of a colonists time almost all the time. They are:

1. Construction
2. Mining
3. Cooking
4. Growing

I try to have one person for each of these tasks that is not required to do more then one of them. Obviously with only three people to start this is a problem. I also like to have my starting colonists able to do one of these as a secondary job.

I typically end up with this:

1. Construction / Miner (This guy is priority 1 cont, priority 2 miner) at least a single flame and 6+ in both.
2. Miner / Construction (This guy is priority 1 miner, priority 2 cont) at least a single flame and 6+ in both.
3. Medical / Social / Grower / Cook - The only thing I care about on this guy is at least 6 medical, preferably 9+ and at least a single flame of passion for social, growing, and cook.

I am one of those people that rerolls until I get people that match these without any negative traits and preferably a good trait on each person. I also use the prepare carefully mod to save my colonists from one game to the next so that I can find a nice landing spot.

[Nickvr628]

#1: Shooter/farmer
#2: Miner/Constructor
#3: Chef/doctor

I never use nutrient paste dispensers except for prisoners.