Ever went brain dead on the job

It happen to me yesterday when I was helping a user. I totally went blank on how to solve the problem even though I did it before. It was was kind of embarrassing. This is first I.T gig and the first time it happen to me. Please share some of your moments and how you handle it. Thanks.

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tpatt100

Back when I was on the helpdesk I took a call and needed assistance from one of the desktop guys. I went over there and he started talking about some movie he saw that I wanted to see. 15 minutes later I forgot all about the lady on the phone and went to lunch. I came back 45 minutes later she was still on hold and I totally forgot what the hell she called about and she knew I was b.s.ing her when I was trying to get more details to jog my memory.

The only good thing was she thought it was funny.

Kaminsky

This is a bit of advice I received years ago which has turned out invaluable:

Never be afraid to ask. Never be afraid to pick up the phone or send an email and find out more information.

The longer you sit there trying to figure out what to do directly correlates to how stupid the user thinks you are... and users talk ! Pick up the phone and say what your finding and get a bit of advice.... Don't expect a complete hand holding session as they will begin to wonder why they employed you. A couple of pointers is fine.

laidbackfreak

Kaminsky wrote: »

Never be afraid to ask. Never be afraid to pick up the phone or send an email and find out more information

Sound advice there

And yep I've had plenty of brain farts over the years and still suffer from them, more so if the topic is new or REAL old lol Usually I just tell whom ever I'm dealing with that I will need to verify something before I can proceed. Most people are happy with that as long as they know you are actually trying to help them.

dorawe

laidbackfreak wrote: »

Sound advice there

And yep I've had plenty of brain farts over the years and still suffer from them, more so if the topic is new or REAL old lol Usually I just tell whom ever I'm dealing with that I will need to verify something before I can proceed. Most people are happy with that as long as they know you are actually trying to help them.

That's the truth, I've found that getting away from the issue that is causing your brain-lockup for a few minutes can help as well. Focus on something else, then come back to it, hopefully the log-jam has cleared by then.........

shaqazoolu

dorawe wrote: »

That's the truth, I've found that getting away from the issue that is causing your brain-lockup for a few minutes can help as well. Focus on something else, then come back to it, hopefully the log-jam has cleared by then.........

This is what works for me. Take a breather and regroup after a few minutes.

There have been a few times where I just have temporary brain paralysis and I'll end up asking one of my coworkers/friends how to do something I've done a million times. Fortunately, all of my friends are always professional and they help me out without rubbing it in...

...and by that I mean my friends are about as mature as a toddler because I have to hear about it for weeks. I have a good sense of humor about it though, because at some point it will be my turn.

dorawe

Another way to help is to create your own 'Knowledge Base', if you don't already have one setup for your group. Each time you solve a particular issue, write down the symptoms, and your resolution. You'll find that keeping a database of known issues and resolutions will help immensely.

passcert23

All great ideas/suggestions. Thanks.

Paul Boz

Just make sure you learn from the experience. Life is trial and error.

RobertKaucher

passcert23 wrote: »

It happen to me yesterday when I was helping a user. I totally went blank on how to solve the problem even though I did it before. It was was kind of embarrassing. This is first I.T gig and the first time it happen to me. Please share some of your moments and how you handle it. Thanks.

Sometimes we are unable to see the forrest for the trees. Just last weekend I was helping two techs (the first is fairly senior and a.Net dev to boot, the second fairly junior). They were attempting to install XP mode on a Windows 7 system to get it to run some software and were having issues. So I see this and start asking questions. Did you guys try compatability mode for XP SP2 first? "No." Well what was the error message? "It requires an older version of the .Net Framwork." Ok, why not just install .Net version 1.1? And you should have seen the guy's face who is also a developer as he did a mental facepalm. "I'm an idiot," he said with a smile and we all laughed. I teased him all day!

One thing you must be able to do in IT, developer or support, is take a step back and disassociate your self from the problem and see it without emotion. If you can do this, you will have fewer instances of brainfarts caused by nerves. But there are times people just blank - on names, on phone numbers, whatever. It just happens.

shaqazoolu - We always rub it in but we are all prepared to take as good as we give. It makes things more fun! Like the time I couldn't get a hard drive out of a laptop because I did not see a screw that was still holding it in.