Inside the SOC: what I struggled with, what I overcame, and what I now know.

👋 Hey everyone,

I recently completed my first month as a Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst — and let me tell you, it was nothing like what I imagined. It was intense, overwhelming, exciting, and deeply educational. If you’re thinking about starting your cybersecurity career or just curious about what life is like in the SOC trenches, this one’s for you.

My Goal This Month 🎯

My main goal was simple: survive and adapt.

I joined the SOC with foundational cybersecurity knowledge but little hands-on experience. My mission was to learn fast — SIEM tools, detection logic, alert triage, threat intelligence — while also proving I could contribute meaningfully to a 24/7 defensive security team.

Spoiler: I didn’t master everything. But I learned more in 30 days than I did in six months of theory.

The Process & The Code 👨‍💻

Here’s a breakdown of what I tackled:

  1. SIEM Onboarding (LogPoint, Splunk, ELK):
    I learned the fundamentals of searching logs, writing queries, and correlating events.

  2. Triage and Escalation:
    I practiced assessing alerts for false positives vs. true incidents and learned when to escalate.

  3. MITRE ATT&CK Mapping:
    We mapped each detection to tactics and techniques — a framework that became my North Star.

  4. Playbooks and SOPs:
    I absorbed as much as I could about standard operating procedures and began contributing to documentation.

  5. Threat Hunting 101:
    I shadowed a senior analyst on basic hunts using endpoint telemetry and DNS logs.

Here’s a simplified example of a basic Splunk query I used to detect potential brute-force login attempts:

index=auth_logs sourcetype=linux_secure "Failed password" 
| stats count by src_ip, user 
| where count > 5

This returned IPs that failed login more than five times — a simple, but powerful start.

Hitting The Wall 🧱

By the end of week one, impostor syndrome hit hard.

Everyone around me spoke in acronyms and moved fast. I didn’t want to slow down the team. I second-guessed every alert I reviewed. I made dumb mistakes — like flagging normal Windows behavior as suspicious because I didn’t recognize scheduled tasks.

My biggest challenges were:

  • Alert fatigue: Triage felt like drinking from a firehose.
  • Tool overload: Each platform had its own quirks and UI logic.
  • Communication: Writing clear, concise incident tickets took more effort than I expected.

There were moments I thought I wasn’t cut out for this.

The Breakthrough Moment ✨

What changed everything was mentorship.

A senior analyst took 30 minutes to review an alert I triaged — not to correct me, but to walk me through the thought process he used.

That day, I learned:

  • Always ask why.
  • Don’t rush the resolution — understand the context of each alert.
  • Confidence comes from repetition, not perfection.

I started documenting every alert I worked on: what triggered it, why it mattered, how I handled it, and what I could do better next time. My personal playbook grew daily.

📚 Recommended Resource

Book: Blue Team Handbook: Incident Response Edition by Don Murdoch
This book is gold for SOC beginners. It’s concise, tactical, and full of checklists and procedures you’ll actually use. I kept it next to my keyboard and referred to it constantly. If you’re entering cybersecurity, grab this early.
Amazon

Key Takeaways 📚

  1. 💡 Triage is a mindset. Don’t treat alerts like checkboxes — understand them.
  2. ⚙️ SIEM mastery takes time. Start with simple queries. Learn what normal looks like.
  3. 📚 Your best weapon is curiosity. Ask, document, reflect. Every alert is a lesson.

Thanks for Following ☕

☕ If you found this guide helpful, you can Buy Me a Coffee!
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Have you started a blue team role recently? What was your biggest early lesson?