Sit Back and Listen

Last night one of my bosses gave me a piece of advice that I'd like to share.  I am a very type A personality.  I am a rather impatient, ambitious, and direct person.  I enjoy being helpful and despise wasting time.  It is hard for me to relax and sit idly by.  My boss, relating to me, gave me a piece of advice. Although these characteristics are great for a boss and can make for a very successful leader, they are not ideal for learning. When you are always trying to be actively helpful you skip the most important aspects of the educational process in order to impress.  She advised that anyone entering into a new position should be very passive the first few weeks of work.  They should sit back, listen, and try to soak up information by osmosis.  By adopting a more passive attitude, you will gather information slowly and truly understand the new information before asking questions.  I find that, like Sherlock Holmes would say, I see everything but I do not observe.  Her advice is to really observe.  Once you can take in the information around you then the questions will come up organically and the answers will actually improve your understanding.

 Sometimes interns ask questions that are too lofty ie: what does a producer do? or, what are you looking for when casting a pilot? These questions, while seeming important, are better answered through personal observation than a brief (and probably vague) answer from someone.  Questions like this also may induce frustration because they are difficult to answer - you don't want your boss to associate frustrating moments with you.

The interesting thing is, when I was working at Lionsgate (also as an intern) they felt oppositely.  They wanted interns to bust their asses on everything and be overly helpful.  Every company is different so you'll have to feel out the culture and make a decision.  In my opinion if you are the only intern it is a pretty good sign that they hire YOU and believe in YOU, so you don't have to impress them right off the bat (they already are impressed by you) - just observe and truly try to learn through observation.