When you enable the VNC connection on a Mac, it will not let you login directly to the current user, but rather it will present you with a login screen after you've authenticated with VNC. This is convenient when you want to login to another account remotely, but not so much if you are trying to assist the current user (this is especially annoying for IT technicians, accessing the computer remotely and not knowing the user password)

A window you see when remotely accessing using VNC:

 To enable direct user access, run this command as sudo:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteManagement VNCAlwaysStartOnConsole -bool true

This will allow for direct login into the current screen and see what the user sees.

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