Career Dilemma: SOC/Sys Admin vs. Web Security and Pentesting

The poster expresses confusion about career direction, enjoying web security and penetration testing but feeling pressured by advice suggesting they start in a SOC role first. They dislike the idea of monitoring-focused work and prefer offensive security tasks like exploiting vulnerabilities and discovering hidden methods. The job market perception has caused stress, making them question whether to pursue their interest in pentesting directly or follow the recommended SOC path.