Stop asking questions. Find solutions yourself!

Finding Solutions

I read this post in the Shooting People bulletin about media students simply asking questions rather than engaging in research:

What is this sudden trend for students to send questionnaires out? I’ve had 3 emails this month from students asking “how do i get on, what’s the best kit to use, what was it like when you started out, who should i speak to, how do i create an impressive show reel?”. I like helping out as much as the next person but i can’t spend all day answering bloomin questionnaires! Is this coming from the teaching fraternity as a new gimmick? Is there a course in how to get on in life by asking lots of random ill thought out questions?

There seems to be a shift from “finding answers” to “asking questions.” The new generation of students have grown up on Google, where to get your answer it’s not about finding where the information you need is. It’s about getting the phrasing of the question you ask Google right. This is influencing the way that this generation look for information in real life.

Asking questions in the Production Office

If you want to stand out as a junior member of staff, you have to show that you can answer your own questions. I’ve written about this and more tips on how to stand out as an intern/junior member of staff in the Internship Insider.

All the questions asked in the quote above, it’s easy enough to find the information. I think courses also have to tick an industry experience box, and questionaries are a simple way of doing that. Shame they do it in a clumsy way.

It doesn’t seem to end in the classroom either. When we get junior staff in, whenever they get a problem, they often just ask for the answer. I ask if they’ve tried finding the answer out for themselves. They say no. I tell them to go find the answer. Really, in the age of Google/YouTube/CreativeCow, there’s not much which you can’t find the answer to yourself, or at least have shown some kind of initiative first.