On-The-Job Behavior Questions

I'm doing an internship for a hedge fund-backed merchant cash advance firm.

I come from a political background. In legislative internships, it's encouraged that you ask for work, get to know people, and generally just always be willing to step up and volunteer for stuff.

At this internship, however, I've been criticized for doing all of these things.

The feedback has generally gone something like these:

a) "You're too aggressive."

b) "People think you're pushy, so now they don't want to give you projects because they don't want to interact with you."

The most confusing, mind-destroying, anger-generating piece of "input" I got today was the following, where, in a situation when I tried to get to know someone in the office I didn't know before because I was interested in analytics projects, my intern coordinator said the following:

c) "That's the aggressiveness. Now, [redacted name] said he actually didn't mind the confrontation, but not everybody would (ie: CTO). Which goes to show, some people might be a little more responsive to your higher level of pushiness, and others not. Because you were asking him for a project just after [intern name redacted] gets one, it looked kind of bad. That's where he was like 'yup, he's a bit jealous.' You basically shouldn't have asked that, but luckily [name redacted] doesn't mind. I think a lot of people would find that irritating though. Don't ask for projects, how about that? If they wanted to give you projects, they would because you'd be recommended for it. Now again, [name redacted] is flexible and doesn't mind. But you went into it WANTING something. He said you should have introduced yourself and what you do first, instead of ask him about what he does"

What the actual %&%^? What is going on here? Every single professional experience I've had up until now has made it clear that, as long as you're good at your job, that being just assertive enough to ask for projects and put yourself forward goes a long way.

What can I do better? What am I really doing wrong here? Input on this would go a long way. I would love to hear from those who read this how I can improve, or whether or not I'm just at the wrong company. I mean, if you're not assertive, you'll never get what you want, right? How else can one possibly proceed?