This post is dedicated to the newcomer/intern. I spent one year in a financial services firm and have honed this skill to a reasonable extent. A common pitfall for an intern is to stay in his own cubicle and too engrossed in doing his own work. For crying out loud, you can do your research at home, but when you are at work, you should fully utilize your time there. Go out and talk to your colleagues and learn from them. Sit in meetings to learn and see more. Some of them find it hard to get their bosses to bring them for meetings, so here's how:
1) establish good relations with your boss
Make him enjoy talking to you, so he'll think about you when he's going for a meeting. Find out about what your boss likes, chat him up on these topics.
2) show gratitude
At every opportunity your boss brought you, thank him and show that how much you appreciate his act. Everyone likes to feel appreciated, and you should not behave like bringing you for meetings is the natural thing to do.
3) be thick skinned
Possibly the ultimate cheat code of crashing meetings, is to enter , smile and say "just take me as a fly in the wall." This takes a lot of courage, really. This move was suggested by my boss himself, when he found it hard to bring me to a key meeting, but he said "doesn't mean you can't barge in yourself..."
