You don't impress anyone by being like everyone else. You impress when you demonstrate good working behaviors that others don't. Believe it or not, many Millenials don't do these things in the workplace. That means there's a great opportunity for you to do these things and stand out with your supervisor:
1) Read email completely.
I can't tell you how many interns or entry-level employees don't actually read their email. Odds are that whoever hires you out of college knows that you'll need some training to transition into the working world, but it's unacceptable to not read an email completely (and re-reading it if you don't get it the first time). Reading your emails is the easiest thing you can do to make yourself look competent in the workplace. Why not take the easy points?
2) Try to figure it out before you ask.
In school, they say there are no such things as stupid questions. In the office, that's not true. There are many questions you could ask that will make you sound less-than-competant. While you should ask questions, you need to demonstrate in your questions that you are actively trying to figure out the problem for yourself. Don't just say, "I got this email, and I don't understand it." Read the email, and use the resources available to you (company files, internet, intranet) to try and figure it out for yourself.
3) Be respectful of your supervisor's time.
Many times a supervisor will explain a process only to have the new employee come ask, "So, I know you already told me, but can you explain it again?" It's your job as the new employee to get up to speed. That means learning new things quickly, but also know what you need to do to help yourself learn. If you know you need to write things down to remember them, and your supervisor launches unexpectedly into a process you need to know to do your job, it is OK to say, "Excuse me. Let me grab something to take notes with before we get too far along so I don't have to ask you about this again later." Demonstrating respect for your supervisor's time will go a long way toward making your supervisor feel like you are reliable and mature--and head and shoulders above the other new employees they manage.
4) Ask smart questions.
Even when you read instructions completely, try to figure it out for yourself, and take awesome notes, you will have to ask questions... just make sure they're smart questions. Smart questions are one that demonstrate that you're putting in real effort to figure it out for yourself and that you've already taken the time to think about the problem from multiple angles. This topic is covered in-depth in the Don't Sound Dumb: How to Ask Smart Questions at Work post.
5) Know your supervisor's priorities.
If you're new on the job, you probably don't know which of your tasks your supervisor things are the most important for you to do right now. Odds are you get assigned more and more tasks every day, and your supervisor will rarely ever say, "Drop everything and do this new project immediately." So when you get a new assignment, first try to figure it out for yourself using the questions in the How to Prioritize Your Work post. Once you know your priorities, you can always ask your supervisor to confirm.
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