How do you become proactive and a people person?

Question

I am shadowing someone who is already in my chosen career. I ask questions but sometimes I am quiet, and doing my observation like I need for my required College classes. But, I feel that I think she thinks that I'm not interested when in fact I really am!
I ask questions but should I be doing so every 5 seconds on everything? How else can I show her I'm interested? Is it okay to be quiet? Do I need to talk about myself? She talks about the profession and about that things that come up and all the logistics and I say Good or that's great! But...how else can I show her that I'm really interested?
Also, In the beginning I smiled alot but I then became normal...is this seen as fake or disingenous? Do you think I just need to relax? I also don't go to lunch with them. I guess because I'm not great at small talk! Help please? Thanks!
(Choppy conversations with pauses in between I suppose is what I mean.)

Answer 1

stop smiling and pull up a chair when lunchtime comes. the way to become more personable is to spend time talking with the person about things that aren't really a big deal like what they did over the weekend, how cold it is outside, the price of gas is outrageous, etc. whenever i start a new job i ALWAYS accept invitations to lunch because it is a good start to building work relationships.

you can be quiet because it shows that you're good at listening so don't try to talk every second. ask questions only if you really need answers, not just to fill the gap in conversation. you don't want to seem like a motormouth.

most of all, just be yourself. people will accept you if you are genuine and can tell when you are not.