Discussion on:

feeling lost

Is it okay to feel lost in a new role? I started at a small company and I only got 5 days training to be desktop tech, network tech, server tech, everything and and i feel sick everyday I go home. I have no support...what to do?

You just have to stop being hard on yourself. Give yourself 4 weeks before you start freaking out. I suspect that in that time you will have a little better understanding of what you are doing.

Take pride in yourself whenever you master something new. No matter how small.

It's a job. Other people have done it, which means YOU can too.

If you have questions, google it. I do that ALL the time and more often than not, I get my answer.

Don't be afraid to ask questions.

Don't freak out. You can't think clearly if you're spending your time worrying about what you don't know.

Make sure you take care of yourself. Take a long hard walk. Punch something. Lift weights.

Escape with a book and FORGET about it for a while.

Be kind to yourself.

And ask questions here. I'm not a network person, but there are lots around.

We all feel uncertain in a new role. If you are working to the best of your ability give yourself asome time to start to feel comfortable.

Good Luck!

Breathe. Feeling lost in a new role is not uncommon. Hopefully you have some sort of technical background, even if its not anything but fiddling with your PC at home.

Obviously they felt that you could do the job. Take that and go with it. You have support you just have to look around. Here for example. The people on this site are extremely helpful, as long as you can see through the humor (Scummy).

Take a breath, relax, and it will be ok. If things get stressful, go outside and scream. Punch a wall (one you can fix, remember cinder blocks hurt), scribble on a pad, play a game, read a book, etc...

Like I said, there are many resources available to you.

Good luck!

You reached out. Keep asking questions. There are no bad questions. There is such a diverse collection of people on this forum that you will most likely receive an answer for any question that you have.

Be patient and things will start to get smoother. Trust me it does get easier. Baby steps.

Good Luck in the new job!!!

Even non tech friends can relate to feeling lost in the workplace. Don't take your job home with you, but we all need to vent about the stress and emotions we feel. That's why great friends are invaluable.

Hmmmmmm______.

I've been doing this crap for twenty years and a new job = nervous, even if it's only ending up on the wrong side of the building.

Keep this secret in your head, It's impossible to do anything wrong, if you don't know how to do it right.

Take your time, check once, check twice, have a fall back position if it might not work. Build your confidence up as you go along.

If it starts getting on top of you, stop make a cup of tea, look at it again, after thinking about something else, like waht twit put an empty milk carton back in teh fridge?

Lots of people here will be happy to point you in the right direction, but your best tool is learning how to use Google to get to the right answer.

Practice with google, even if you are sure you know the answer, see if you can ask the right question to confirm.

You can see an example right here. We've all been teaching G-Man how to hum. See how far along he is?

Now THAT made me laugh

Great example,,,, you made my business day!

.

You mean that it falls flat, I meant it to have little prominence. I meant it to fall well alongside just lighthearted.

You see, G-Man is among those like yourself to whom I pay more than cursory attention. He has teeth, too, but does not extol his teeth, that I can remember. He just uses them.

You're far to pointy...

Manage the pitch pipe more better, like the way we told you. G-Man will rise to melody soon enough when you rise to your part.

Fawning emulation of pointy on your part, by the way, is what gives rise to mine.

Now: and a one, and a two, and a three...blow.

Write everything down that you do and the steps that you take to remedy the situation. I save them for future reference in Notepad. I keep a log file in notepad for each System with a link to it on the desktop or in quicklaunch, that will let me know what has been done to the System. Just add this syntax to the beginning of the file .LOG

As suggested if you use Google and find a solution double check what you are doing on a test System. If you haven't access to a test System use a Virtual environment for testing. It will take you awhile to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff as there is a lot of misinformation on some sites and until you gain experience you won't know if it really is a fix.

Technet is a valuable resouce although it isn't kept up to date as it used to be. Most of the Microsoft fixes for XP will work with Vista.

If you are using Linux there is a lot of information available out there.

Take one step at a time and concentrate on one problem at a time, you will learn to prioritise the problems that will crop up.

There is a wealth of knowledge here on TR if you can find it. Good Luck.

Is that you you settle in things will get easier. It's the newness of the position and your own general Lack of Confidence in yourself.

Just because you don't feel that you are doing the job the best possible way, doesn't mean that others see you in that light.

Personally I feel that way every time I take on a new client till I know & understand they way that they work I don't feel that I'm doing the best for them.

Col

doesn't matter who you are or how long you have been in the field.

Been at my job for 5 months now and still am learning the systems, and I have been in the field for a "few" years or so....

Anytime there is down time, grab documentation or a manual and read up on the system.

Don't give up, and don't expect it over night.

Wow..thank you so much everyone. I have been away from the hands on tech role for awhile and just got really nervous and was doubting my knowledge..I thank everyone..you all are a great set of people and are very kind. Thanks again,

3 girlz!!

Stick around. Almost everyone here has had a point in his or her career when he was handed some completely unfamiliar piece of technology and expected to make it work, with no advance warning or training. It's an unwritten part of every IT job description.

Feel free to post rants here, ask questions, or sob on a shoulder; we've all done it. Well, maybe not on The Scummy One's shoulder; you might get stuck to his shirt.

Try making a list of the most important problems you see.. try to use general topics:

e.g.
1) Network Documentation (lack of)
2) Server disk space
3) Aging pcs

With my list in place, even with all the "ad-hoc" fire fighting I had to do, I was able to direct more of my smaller tasks towards solving the larger problems.

I felt the same, until I read the post. Now I am bit relaxed and convinced on my new job. Thank you guys for your valuable inputs

Two months and she hasn't come back.

It's enough to make you want to stop helping the needy, whiny people, isn't it?

Feeling lost is normal, and it better than the alternative feeling like you know everything. When you feel lost you're still learning and can learn. When you feel like you know everything and have stopped learning. The trick is to know enough to get by and never stop learning.

If you need people to talk with someone is usually here.