Is it wrong to ask lots of questions as an intern? [duplicate]

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How to ask senior/mid level developers for guidance (if you're a junior)?

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I'm on paid internship in IT at a large bank where scope is for me to learn and to a get to a level of junior/professional with 2 or 3 years experience, so I can get hired.

Thus I came to a strategy of making a lot of questions, even dumb ones when I never touched some new technology they're asking me to work with and confirm my actions when I'm not sure about its impact (don't want to mess things up, I already did once though).
Furthermore I try to be as honest as nd direct as possible and I'm learning a lot. I also try to maintain an positive mood around as much as possible (IT isn't always happiness and rainbows) but it has been almost 6 months still I feel like sometimes my colleagues get angry, irritated or annoyed when I ask them a question about something new (new in a sense I never touched that/knew that project before)... :-(

Am I not doing as I'm supposed to?
What can I do to stop getting this negative feeling back and still learn at the rate I am now?

asked Sep 24 '15 at 0:23

CMPSoares

1346

marked as duplicate by scaaahu, nvoigt, Jenny D, Myles, DJClayworth Oct 1 '15 at 23:14

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

Although that answer helps @gnat it isn't in the same perspective. .. I wanted to know if it is wrong and more I wanted to know the why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 26 '15 at 1:40

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up vote
5
down vote

favorite

This question already has an answer here:

How to ask senior/mid level developers for guidance (if you're a junior)?

4 answers

I'm on paid internship in IT at a large bank where scope is for me to learn and to a get to a level of junior/professional with 2 or 3 years experience, so I can get hired.

Am I not doing as I'm supposed to?
What can I do to stop getting this negative feeling back and still learn at the rate I am now?

asked Sep 24 '15 at 0:23

CMPSoares

1346

marked as duplicate by scaaahu, nvoigt, Jenny D, Myles, DJClayworth Oct 1 '15 at 23:14

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

Although that answer helps @gnat it isn't in the same perspective. .. I wanted to know if it is wrong and more I wanted to know the why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 26 '15 at 1:40

suggest improvementsÂ |Â

up vote
5
down vote

favorite

This question already has an answer here:

How to ask senior/mid level developers for guidance (if you're a junior)?

4 answers

I'm on paid internship in IT at a large bank where scope is for me to learn and to a get to a level of junior/professional with 2 or 3 years experience, so I can get hired.

Am I not doing as I'm supposed to?
What can I do to stop getting this negative feeling back and still learn at the rate I am now?

asked Sep 24 '15 at 0:23

CMPSoares

1346

This question already has an answer here:

How to ask senior/mid level developers for guidance (if you're a junior)?

4 answers

I'm on paid internship in IT at a large bank where scope is for me to learn and to a get to a level of junior/professional with 2 or 3 years experience, so I can get hired.

Am I not doing as I'm supposed to?
What can I do to stop getting this negative feeling back and still learn at the rate I am now?

This question already has an answer here:

How to ask senior/mid level developers for guidance (if you're a junior)?

4 answers

asked Sep 24 '15 at 0:23

CMPSoares

1346

asked Sep 24 '15 at 0:23

CMPSoares

1346

asked Sep 24 '15 at 0:23

CMPSoares

1346

asked Sep 24 '15 at 0:23

CMPSoares

1346

marked as duplicate by scaaahu, nvoigt, Jenny D, Myles, DJClayworth Oct 1 '15 at 23:14

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

marked as duplicate by scaaahu, nvoigt, Jenny D, Myles, DJClayworth Oct 1 '15 at 23:14

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

Although that answer helps @gnat it isn't in the same perspective. .. I wanted to know if it is wrong and more I wanted to know the why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 26 '15 at 1:40

suggest improvementsÂ |Â

Although that answer helps @gnat it isn't in the same perspective. .. I wanted to know if it is wrong and more I wanted to know the why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 26 '15 at 1:40

Although that answer helps @gnat it isn't in the same perspective. .. I wanted to know if it is wrong and more I wanted to know the why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 26 '15 at 1:40

suggest improvementsÂ |Â

3 Answers
3

active

oldest

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up vote
13
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accepted

Nothing wrong with asking questions unless they're such that it shows you have made little or no attempt to work out the answer for yourself first.

Use whatever resources are available to you to do a bit of research on issues yourself before bugging someone else. They will notice and appreciate it.

Question A (annoying) "I couldn't login, do you think it's because I didn't capatilise the first letter in my password, I thought case didn't matter? Please help me!"

Question B (reasonable) "I'm having an issue getting my SQL statement to work correctly. I have tried this, this and this, and spent half an hour on google trying to find a solution but I'm stumped. When you have a bit of time can you give me an assist please."

Question C (best question) "I need to do X, could you show me where I can find out how to do that?" (assuming that you're not talking to the person who was tasked to make the documentation which doesn't yet exist)

Also a lot of peoples attitudes can also hinge on how you take their answers as well. So:

Question D (possibly make people reluctant to find time although it may seem reasonable) I'm having an issue getting my SQL statement to work correctly. I have tried this, this and this, and spent half an hour on google trying to find a solution but I'm stumped. When you have a bit of time can you give me an assist please." (During and after which I want to engage in a long winded and non productive conversation on irrelevancies like I did last time)

edited Sep 24 '15 at 3:28

answered Sep 24 '15 at 1:00

Kilisi

94.7k50216377

1

Question C (best question) "I need to do X, could you show me where I can find out how to do that?"
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:06

1

nice addition, I'll add that, hope you don't mind
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 1:14

1

Go ahead :) It's all making the workplace better
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:15

1

@CMPSoares sorry my comment wasn't aimed at you, it was a reply to another comment, that has been deleted, I like question B as well, but in some situations eg., well documented issues, question C would get a thumbs up
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 2:17

1

Relevant: Rubberduck problem solving.
â€“Â ThatGuy
Sep 24 '15 at 10:20

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In my internship (also IT company), my experienced work colleagues were also getting annoyed when receiving a lot of these 'I have no idea what's happening' questions from me or other interns. Indeed, it causes people to lose focus on what they were doing and could take time to get into it again.

One of the senior developers actually told me that it's okay to ask, but you should first research that on your own (there's a lot of good stuff on the internet). Have you done that?

You have to learn to be independent as well, so my impression is that you should ask less and less with the time. Also, maybe your questions could transition from 'what does this do?' to 'I encountered this problem and I read this and that about fixing it. I'm not sure what's the best solution from A and B, but I think B could be better because x. Would you say the same?'

Also, if you guys use some kind of IM, maybe send a line to the person that you want to approach and say 'Hey, when you have 2 minutes, I'd like to hear your opinion on an issue I encountered.' This will allow this person to leave what he's doing in a continuable state and help you when he can.

edited Sep 24 '15 at 0:47

answered Sep 24 '15 at 0:39

Alex

248412

2

I'd also suggest bunch up a few questions together instead of interrupting them lots of times. You could then even ask to schedule a meeting to get them all out of the way at once :)
â€“Â Jane Sâ™¦
Sep 24 '15 at 0:50

1

Thanks for the answer @Alex. I already try those approaches. In my case its an internal project I'm working on and I documentation is lacking. And most of the times I ask them something it's some strange configuration problem, those you try every approach on the Internet and still can't fix it. And then you finally decide to ask him well I tried A, B, C and D all the way to Y but nothing fixes it. And he's like "oh that's just Z" and fixes it in 2 minutes while I lose a whole day at least. It's just counter productive... Or it ends up having me reverse engineer deprecated software for the fix.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 0:58

@JaneS We used to do so but they stopped scheduling these meetings and I don't know why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

2

Yea, that kind of thing happened to me as well. They also said that if you can't fix it in like 2 hours or a reasonable amount of time, then you shouldn't waste more time on it and it's okay to ask. This of course, after researching about the problem and trying a couple of things. Ow and I'm not sure you can do much about bad documentation.
â€“Â Alex
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

1

@CMPSoares and who's stopping you from setting up meetings? It sounds like your manager or someone else setup meetings initially, but now you're expected to have learned how to do that.
â€“Â Chan-Ho Suh
Sep 24 '15 at 1:45

Â |Â
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up vote
3
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I partially agree with @klisi's (and others') answer that says you must demonstrate some level of effort at resolving your problems before bringing them, as questions, to others.

It appears, however, that you're already doing that and you are still getting surly responses and perhaps sense an unwillingness to communicate.

There's one other dimension here which needs to be considered and I think it is the key to succeeding in an environment where you have a lot to learn and face a lack of cooperation from others who are capable of helping you. Basically, these coworkers might not know how to mentor interns. Merely having a high level of knowledge and skills does not make someone a good mentor.

In an ideal situation, mentors would assess their students by engaging in dialog and also challenge the students with problems and insightful critiques (basically the Socratic method). You're not getting that, sadly. It is hard to say why this is happening, but I think the most typical reason would be that these folks were treated the same way as they are treating you when they were starting out. They may feel that they're doing "the right thing" by letting you sink or swim. Or it could be that you're in a sweatshop environment were project managers are pushing everyone (including those who would be your mentors) for "deliverables" without regard to developing skills and talent amongst the team.

So, your mentors suck. But all is not lost. What this means is that you need to take more responsibility for your learning and "manage your mentors" to get what you need to develop professionally. There are a few tips that come to mind, based on my own experience with this type of environment:

Obviously, ask good questions which demonstrate effort like the others said. Nobody wants to help you by "spoon-feeding" you knowledge.

Be mindful of when you're asking questions. Everyone has different times throughout the day when they need to focus on their work and other times when they're receptive to dialog. Its up to you to find those times and recognize that it is different for everyone. You want to make it easy for them to interact with you. You don't want to be that guy that interrupts their focus at the worst possible time.

Take notes. Really, really, listen to what these folks are telling you. Act like what they're saying is super-important and express gratitude even though they may be dismissive to you in their attitude. Review your notes, apply that knowledge, and ask pointed follow-up questions in the next opportunity. You never want to ask the same question twice (it shows lack of effort).

Develop rapport with as many as you can. This is rather nebulous, but very critical. It is easy to get focused on protocol and doing everything right, but the problem with that is your interactions will appear very stilted and transactional (no one likes that). This means taking some initiative.... Are you doing good things without prompting? Are you taking away some of their work-burden in some way? Can you make a joke? Are you giving them a novel point of view or some information which they may not have?

Once you have some rapport, you can then ask questions that are deeper than "How do I x, y and z?". That's the stage you should aim for for a successful internship.

answered Sep 24 '15 at 13:12

teego1967

10.3k42845

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3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

up vote
13
down vote

accepted

Nothing wrong with asking questions unless they're such that it shows you have made little or no attempt to work out the answer for yourself first.

Use whatever resources are available to you to do a bit of research on issues yourself before bugging someone else. They will notice and appreciate it.

Question A (annoying) "I couldn't login, do you think it's because I didn't capatilise the first letter in my password, I thought case didn't matter? Please help me!"

Also a lot of peoples attitudes can also hinge on how you take their answers as well. So:

edited Sep 24 '15 at 3:28

answered Sep 24 '15 at 1:00

Kilisi

94.7k50216377

1

Question C (best question) "I need to do X, could you show me where I can find out how to do that?"
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:06

1

nice addition, I'll add that, hope you don't mind
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 1:14

1

Go ahead :) It's all making the workplace better
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:15

1

@CMPSoares sorry my comment wasn't aimed at you, it was a reply to another comment, that has been deleted, I like question B as well, but in some situations eg., well documented issues, question C would get a thumbs up
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 2:17

1

Relevant: Rubberduck problem solving.
â€“Â ThatGuy
Sep 24 '15 at 10:20

Â |Â
show 5 more comments

up vote
13
down vote

accepted

Nothing wrong with asking questions unless they're such that it shows you have made little or no attempt to work out the answer for yourself first.

Use whatever resources are available to you to do a bit of research on issues yourself before bugging someone else. They will notice and appreciate it.

Question A (annoying) "I couldn't login, do you think it's because I didn't capatilise the first letter in my password, I thought case didn't matter? Please help me!"

Also a lot of peoples attitudes can also hinge on how you take their answers as well. So:

edited Sep 24 '15 at 3:28

answered Sep 24 '15 at 1:00

Kilisi

94.7k50216377

1

Question C (best question) "I need to do X, could you show me where I can find out how to do that?"
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:06

1

nice addition, I'll add that, hope you don't mind
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 1:14

1

Go ahead :) It's all making the workplace better
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:15

1

@CMPSoares sorry my comment wasn't aimed at you, it was a reply to another comment, that has been deleted, I like question B as well, but in some situations eg., well documented issues, question C would get a thumbs up
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 2:17

1

Relevant: Rubberduck problem solving.
â€“Â ThatGuy
Sep 24 '15 at 10:20

Â |Â
show 5 more comments

up vote
13
down vote

accepted

Nothing wrong with asking questions unless they're such that it shows you have made little or no attempt to work out the answer for yourself first.

Use whatever resources are available to you to do a bit of research on issues yourself before bugging someone else. They will notice and appreciate it.

Question A (annoying) "I couldn't login, do you think it's because I didn't capatilise the first letter in my password, I thought case didn't matter? Please help me!"

Also a lot of peoples attitudes can also hinge on how you take their answers as well. So:

edited Sep 24 '15 at 3:28

answered Sep 24 '15 at 1:00

Kilisi

94.7k50216377

Nothing wrong with asking questions unless they're such that it shows you have made little or no attempt to work out the answer for yourself first.

Use whatever resources are available to you to do a bit of research on issues yourself before bugging someone else. They will notice and appreciate it.

Question A (annoying) "I couldn't login, do you think it's because I didn't capatilise the first letter in my password, I thought case didn't matter? Please help me!"

Also a lot of peoples attitudes can also hinge on how you take their answers as well. So:

edited Sep 24 '15 at 3:28

answered Sep 24 '15 at 1:00

Kilisi

94.7k50216377

edited Sep 24 '15 at 3:28

answered Sep 24 '15 at 1:00

Kilisi

94.7k50216377

answered Sep 24 '15 at 1:00

Kilisi

94.7k50216377

answered Sep 24 '15 at 1:00

Kilisi

94.7k50216377

1

Question C (best question) "I need to do X, could you show me where I can find out how to do that?"
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:06

1

nice addition, I'll add that, hope you don't mind
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 1:14

1

Go ahead :) It's all making the workplace better
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:15

1

@CMPSoares sorry my comment wasn't aimed at you, it was a reply to another comment, that has been deleted, I like question B as well, but in some situations eg., well documented issues, question C would get a thumbs up
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 2:17

1

Relevant: Rubberduck problem solving.
â€“Â ThatGuy
Sep 24 '15 at 10:20

Â |Â
show 5 more comments

1

Question C (best question) "I need to do X, could you show me where I can find out how to do that?"
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:06

1

nice addition, I'll add that, hope you don't mind
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 1:14

1

Go ahead :) It's all making the workplace better
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:15

1

@CMPSoares sorry my comment wasn't aimed at you, it was a reply to another comment, that has been deleted, I like question B as well, but in some situations eg., well documented issues, question C would get a thumbs up
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 2:17

1

Relevant: Rubberduck problem solving.
â€“Â ThatGuy
Sep 24 '15 at 10:20

Question C (best question) "I need to do X, could you show me where I can find out how to do that?"
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:06

nice addition, I'll add that, hope you don't mind
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 1:14

Go ahead :) It's all making the workplace better
â€“Â HorusKol
Sep 24 '15 at 1:15

@CMPSoares sorry my comment wasn't aimed at you, it was a reply to another comment, that has been deleted, I like question B as well, but in some situations eg., well documented issues, question C would get a thumbs up
â€“Â Kilisi
Sep 24 '15 at 2:17

Relevant: Rubberduck problem solving.
â€“Â ThatGuy
Sep 24 '15 at 10:20

Â |Â
show 5 more comments

up vote
5
down vote

One of the senior developers actually told me that it's okay to ask, but you should first research that on your own (there's a lot of good stuff on the internet). Have you done that?

edited Sep 24 '15 at 0:47

answered Sep 24 '15 at 0:39

Alex

248412

2

I'd also suggest bunch up a few questions together instead of interrupting them lots of times. You could then even ask to schedule a meeting to get them all out of the way at once :)
â€“Â Jane Sâ™¦
Sep 24 '15 at 0:50

1

Thanks for the answer @Alex. I already try those approaches. In my case its an internal project I'm working on and I documentation is lacking. And most of the times I ask them something it's some strange configuration problem, those you try every approach on the Internet and still can't fix it. And then you finally decide to ask him well I tried A, B, C and D all the way to Y but nothing fixes it. And he's like "oh that's just Z" and fixes it in 2 minutes while I lose a whole day at least. It's just counter productive... Or it ends up having me reverse engineer deprecated software for the fix.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 0:58

@JaneS We used to do so but they stopped scheduling these meetings and I don't know why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

2

Yea, that kind of thing happened to me as well. They also said that if you can't fix it in like 2 hours or a reasonable amount of time, then you shouldn't waste more time on it and it's okay to ask. This of course, after researching about the problem and trying a couple of things. Ow and I'm not sure you can do much about bad documentation.
â€“Â Alex
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

1

@CMPSoares and who's stopping you from setting up meetings? It sounds like your manager or someone else setup meetings initially, but now you're expected to have learned how to do that.
â€“Â Chan-Ho Suh
Sep 24 '15 at 1:45

Â |Â
show 1 more comment

up vote
5
down vote

One of the senior developers actually told me that it's okay to ask, but you should first research that on your own (there's a lot of good stuff on the internet). Have you done that?

edited Sep 24 '15 at 0:47

answered Sep 24 '15 at 0:39

Alex

248412

2

I'd also suggest bunch up a few questions together instead of interrupting them lots of times. You could then even ask to schedule a meeting to get them all out of the way at once :)
â€“Â Jane Sâ™¦
Sep 24 '15 at 0:50

1

Thanks for the answer @Alex. I already try those approaches. In my case its an internal project I'm working on and I documentation is lacking. And most of the times I ask them something it's some strange configuration problem, those you try every approach on the Internet and still can't fix it. And then you finally decide to ask him well I tried A, B, C and D all the way to Y but nothing fixes it. And he's like "oh that's just Z" and fixes it in 2 minutes while I lose a whole day at least. It's just counter productive... Or it ends up having me reverse engineer deprecated software for the fix.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 0:58

@JaneS We used to do so but they stopped scheduling these meetings and I don't know why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

2

Yea, that kind of thing happened to me as well. They also said that if you can't fix it in like 2 hours or a reasonable amount of time, then you shouldn't waste more time on it and it's okay to ask. This of course, after researching about the problem and trying a couple of things. Ow and I'm not sure you can do much about bad documentation.
â€“Â Alex
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

1

@CMPSoares and who's stopping you from setting up meetings? It sounds like your manager or someone else setup meetings initially, but now you're expected to have learned how to do that.
â€“Â Chan-Ho Suh
Sep 24 '15 at 1:45

Â |Â
show 1 more comment

up vote
5
down vote

One of the senior developers actually told me that it's okay to ask, but you should first research that on your own (there's a lot of good stuff on the internet). Have you done that?

edited Sep 24 '15 at 0:47

answered Sep 24 '15 at 0:39

Alex

248412

One of the senior developers actually told me that it's okay to ask, but you should first research that on your own (there's a lot of good stuff on the internet). Have you done that?

edited Sep 24 '15 at 0:47

answered Sep 24 '15 at 0:39

Alex

248412

edited Sep 24 '15 at 0:47

answered Sep 24 '15 at 0:39

Alex

248412

answered Sep 24 '15 at 0:39

Alex

248412

answered Sep 24 '15 at 0:39

Alex

248412

2

I'd also suggest bunch up a few questions together instead of interrupting them lots of times. You could then even ask to schedule a meeting to get them all out of the way at once :)
â€“Â Jane Sâ™¦
Sep 24 '15 at 0:50

1

Thanks for the answer @Alex. I already try those approaches. In my case its an internal project I'm working on and I documentation is lacking. And most of the times I ask them something it's some strange configuration problem, those you try every approach on the Internet and still can't fix it. And then you finally decide to ask him well I tried A, B, C and D all the way to Y but nothing fixes it. And he's like "oh that's just Z" and fixes it in 2 minutes while I lose a whole day at least. It's just counter productive... Or it ends up having me reverse engineer deprecated software for the fix.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 0:58

@JaneS We used to do so but they stopped scheduling these meetings and I don't know why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

2

Yea, that kind of thing happened to me as well. They also said that if you can't fix it in like 2 hours or a reasonable amount of time, then you shouldn't waste more time on it and it's okay to ask. This of course, after researching about the problem and trying a couple of things. Ow and I'm not sure you can do much about bad documentation.
â€“Â Alex
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

1

@CMPSoares and who's stopping you from setting up meetings? It sounds like your manager or someone else setup meetings initially, but now you're expected to have learned how to do that.
â€“Â Chan-Ho Suh
Sep 24 '15 at 1:45

Â |Â
show 1 more comment

2

I'd also suggest bunch up a few questions together instead of interrupting them lots of times. You could then even ask to schedule a meeting to get them all out of the way at once :)
â€“Â Jane Sâ™¦
Sep 24 '15 at 0:50

1

Thanks for the answer @Alex. I already try those approaches. In my case its an internal project I'm working on and I documentation is lacking. And most of the times I ask them something it's some strange configuration problem, those you try every approach on the Internet and still can't fix it. And then you finally decide to ask him well I tried A, B, C and D all the way to Y but nothing fixes it. And he's like "oh that's just Z" and fixes it in 2 minutes while I lose a whole day at least. It's just counter productive... Or it ends up having me reverse engineer deprecated software for the fix.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 0:58

@JaneS We used to do so but they stopped scheduling these meetings and I don't know why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

2

Yea, that kind of thing happened to me as well. They also said that if you can't fix it in like 2 hours or a reasonable amount of time, then you shouldn't waste more time on it and it's okay to ask. This of course, after researching about the problem and trying a couple of things. Ow and I'm not sure you can do much about bad documentation.
â€“Â Alex
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

1

@CMPSoares and who's stopping you from setting up meetings? It sounds like your manager or someone else setup meetings initially, but now you're expected to have learned how to do that.
â€“Â Chan-Ho Suh
Sep 24 '15 at 1:45

I'd also suggest bunch up a few questions together instead of interrupting them lots of times. You could then even ask to schedule a meeting to get them all out of the way at once :)
â€“Â Jane Sâ™¦
Sep 24 '15 at 0:50

Thanks for the answer @Alex. I already try those approaches. In my case its an internal project I'm working on and I documentation is lacking. And most of the times I ask them something it's some strange configuration problem, those you try every approach on the Internet and still can't fix it. And then you finally decide to ask him well I tried A, B, C and D all the way to Y but nothing fixes it. And he's like "oh that's just Z" and fixes it in 2 minutes while I lose a whole day at least. It's just counter productive... Or it ends up having me reverse engineer deprecated software for the fix.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 0:58

@JaneS We used to do so but they stopped scheduling these meetings and I don't know why.
â€“Â CMPSoares
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

Yea, that kind of thing happened to me as well. They also said that if you can't fix it in like 2 hours or a reasonable amount of time, then you shouldn't waste more time on it and it's okay to ask. This of course, after researching about the problem and trying a couple of things. Ow and I'm not sure you can do much about bad documentation.
â€“Â Alex
Sep 24 '15 at 1:02

@CMPSoares and who's stopping you from setting up meetings? It sounds like your manager or someone else setup meetings initially, but now you're expected to have learned how to do that.
â€“Â Chan-Ho Suh
Sep 24 '15 at 1:45

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3
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I partially agree with @klisi's (and others') answer that says you must demonstrate some level of effort at resolving your problems before bringing them, as questions, to others.

It appears, however, that you're already doing that and you are still getting surly responses and perhaps sense an unwillingness to communicate.

Obviously, ask good questions which demonstrate effort like the others said. Nobody wants to help you by "spoon-feeding" you knowledge.

Be mindful of when you're asking questions. Everyone has different times throughout the day when they need to focus on their work and other times when they're receptive to dialog. Its up to you to find those times and recognize that it is different for everyone. You want to make it easy for them to interact with you. You don't want to be that guy that interrupts their focus at the worst possible time.

Take notes. Really, really, listen to what these folks are telling you. Act like what they're saying is super-important and express gratitude even though they may be dismissive to you in their attitude. Review your notes, apply that knowledge, and ask pointed follow-up questions in the next opportunity. You never want to ask the same question twice (it shows lack of effort).

Develop rapport with as many as you can. This is rather nebulous, but very critical. It is easy to get focused on protocol and doing everything right, but the problem with that is your interactions will appear very stilted and transactional (no one likes that). This means taking some initiative.... Are you doing good things without prompting? Are you taking away some of their work-burden in some way? Can you make a joke? Are you giving them a novel point of view or some information which they may not have?

Once you have some rapport, you can then ask questions that are deeper than "How do I x, y and z?". That's the stage you should aim for for a successful internship.

answered Sep 24 '15 at 13:12

teego1967

10.3k42845

suggest improvementsÂ |Â

up vote
3
down vote

I partially agree with @klisi's (and others') answer that says you must demonstrate some level of effort at resolving your problems before bringing them, as questions, to others.

It appears, however, that you're already doing that and you are still getting surly responses and perhaps sense an unwillingness to communicate.

Obviously, ask good questions which demonstrate effort like the others said. Nobody wants to help you by "spoon-feeding" you knowledge.

Be mindful of when you're asking questions. Everyone has different times throughout the day when they need to focus on their work and other times when they're receptive to dialog. Its up to you to find those times and recognize that it is different for everyone. You want to make it easy for them to interact with you. You don't want to be that guy that interrupts their focus at the worst possible time.

Take notes. Really, really, listen to what these folks are telling you. Act like what they're saying is super-important and express gratitude even though they may be dismissive to you in their attitude. Review your notes, apply that knowledge, and ask pointed follow-up questions in the next opportunity. You never want to ask the same question twice (it shows lack of effort).

Develop rapport with as many as you can. This is rather nebulous, but very critical. It is easy to get focused on protocol and doing everything right, but the problem with that is your interactions will appear very stilted and transactional (no one likes that). This means taking some initiative.... Are you doing good things without prompting? Are you taking away some of their work-burden in some way? Can you make a joke? Are you giving them a novel point of view or some information which they may not have?

Once you have some rapport, you can then ask questions that are deeper than "How do I x, y and z?". That's the stage you should aim for for a successful internship.

answered Sep 24 '15 at 13:12

teego1967

10.3k42845

suggest improvementsÂ |Â

up vote
3
down vote

I partially agree with @klisi's (and others') answer that says you must demonstrate some level of effort at resolving your problems before bringing them, as questions, to others.

It appears, however, that you're already doing that and you are still getting surly responses and perhaps sense an unwillingness to communicate.

Obviously, ask good questions which demonstrate effort like the others said. Nobody wants to help you by "spoon-feeding" you knowledge.

Be mindful of when you're asking questions. Everyone has different times throughout the day when they need to focus on their work and other times when they're receptive to dialog. Its up to you to find those times and recognize that it is different for everyone. You want to make it easy for them to interact with you. You don't want to be that guy that interrupts their focus at the worst possible time.

Take notes. Really, really, listen to what these folks are telling you. Act like what they're saying is super-important and express gratitude even though they may be dismissive to you in their attitude. Review your notes, apply that knowledge, and ask pointed follow-up questions in the next opportunity. You never want to ask the same question twice (it shows lack of effort).

Develop rapport with as many as you can. This is rather nebulous, but very critical. It is easy to get focused on protocol and doing everything right, but the problem with that is your interactions will appear very stilted and transactional (no one likes that). This means taking some initiative.... Are you doing good things without prompting? Are you taking away some of their work-burden in some way? Can you make a joke? Are you giving them a novel point of view or some information which they may not have?

Once you have some rapport, you can then ask questions that are deeper than "How do I x, y and z?". That's the stage you should aim for for a successful internship.

answered Sep 24 '15 at 13:12

teego1967

10.3k42845

I partially agree with @klisi's (and others') answer that says you must demonstrate some level of effort at resolving your problems before bringing them, as questions, to others.

It appears, however, that you're already doing that and you are still getting surly responses and perhaps sense an unwillingness to communicate.

Obviously, ask good questions which demonstrate effort like the others said. Nobody wants to help you by "spoon-feeding" you knowledge.

Be mindful of when you're asking questions. Everyone has different times throughout the day when they need to focus on their work and other times when they're receptive to dialog. Its up to you to find those times and recognize that it is different for everyone. You want to make it easy for them to interact with you. You don't want to be that guy that interrupts their focus at the worst possible time.

Take notes. Really, really, listen to what these folks are telling you. Act like what they're saying is super-important and express gratitude even though they may be dismissive to you in their attitude. Review your notes, apply that knowledge, and ask pointed follow-up questions in the next opportunity. You never want to ask the same question twice (it shows lack of effort).

Develop rapport with as many as you can. This is rather nebulous, but very critical. It is easy to get focused on protocol and doing everything right, but the problem with that is your interactions will appear very stilted and transactional (no one likes that). This means taking some initiative.... Are you doing good things without prompting? Are you taking away some of their work-burden in some way? Can you make a joke? Are you giving them a novel point of view or some information which they may not have?

Once you have some rapport, you can then ask questions that are deeper than "How do I x, y and z?". That's the stage you should aim for for a successful internship.

answered Sep 24 '15 at 13:12

teego1967

10.3k42845

answered Sep 24 '15 at 13:12

teego1967

10.3k42845

answered Sep 24 '15 at 13:12

teego1967

10.3k42845

answered Sep 24 '15 at 13:12

teego1967

10.3k42845

suggest improvementsÂ |Â

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