The below post was guest written by my friend Phillip.

Why don’t more offices hire young interns? There are so many smart young people willing to work long hours for little pay!

The answer: most of the time they are more trouble than they are worth. They lack a basic workplace maturity that ends up being the difference between those who make it (get over it) and those who don’t (automatons).

I think I’ve found a simple way to get over this issue easily: only go to your boss with a problem that is phrased as a question requiring only a yes/no answer or choosing an option among multiple choices. The inexperienced with potential as well as those who are lazy and will just never excel will commonly approach a boss with a problem: “I tried to do what you said but it didn’t work and I don’t know why.” Allow me to translate what you’re boss hears: “I need you to come do my job for me.”

In reality it is much more time consuming to explain step-by-step to a person how to do something than to just do it yourself. This is why hiring an intern, especially one straight out of undergraduate, is rarely worth it. In so many cases, in a professional environment the development of the map by the boss for the employee takes more time than the process for which the map is intended.

Now, what are you supposed to do if you’re an intern or really anyone who comes up against a wall and needs guidance from your boss?  

1. Think about possible solutions to your problem or ways to come to solutions and their merits. You have a brain, use it.

2. Decide what you think is the best plan of action among these possibilities. Many times this just means looking for an answer in a way that is slightly more inconvenient for you but does not bother your boss (his time is much more precious than yours). By the way, the answer is probably on the Internet.

3. If you’ve done 1 and 2 and are still stuck; now you have a legitimate reason to talk to your boss.   The conversation should go something like this. “I tried to do what you said but it didn’t work. So, it occurred to me that I could do A, B, or C. Based on what I was able to figure out through some quick research into these by checking out this and that source, my thought was that the best course of action would be try C. I just wanted to touch base with you before proceeding since I’m new at this and you might have some insight.” Your boss will want to HUG YOU! You haven’t asked him to drop everything he is doing and do your job for you!!! He can give you a quick answer and have confidence you will use your brain.  

So, how do you remember this? A sure fire way is that any time you have an issue that you want to discuss with your boss, make sure you come in with a question or explanation that only requires a yes/no answer or multiple choice selection from your boss. By the way, you’ll also end up finding when you do this that you grow as an asset to the company because you start putting your small actions in the context of the organization and understand why you do what you do.  Your suggestions for courses of action will benefit and you’ll start looking like someone that can handle responsibility.