TryHackMe

I’ve recently joined TryHackMe.

I also have almost two decades of IT experience under my belt. The kind that comes with scar tissue: late-night outages, “it was DNS” postmortems, and the occasional moment of calm when a dashboard finally stops screaming.

And yet, on TryHackMe, I’m back in the n00b ranks like everyone else.

Why I’m Doing This

Over time you get good at what you already do. You develop instincts, shortcuts, and an internal autopilot. That’s great for shipping work, but it’s not always great for learning.

TryHackMe forces me to slow down, follow the fundamentals, and prove things to myself in a hands-on way. No vague “I understand this”. It’s either solved or it isn’t.

And I like that.

Why Blue Hat

I’m taking the Blue Hat path because I’m drawn to the defensive side of the house rather than the (argubly more fun) sides of the house, more on that later.

I’ve spent years in and around systems that should be observable, controllable, and secure. But knowing how things should work isn’t the same as practicing how to spot when they don’t.

Starting as a “n00b” Is a Feature

There’s a particular kind of humility that comes from being a beginner in public.

On TryHackMe, my title doesn’t matter and neither do my years don’t matter so I’m leaning into the beginner lane, taking notes like it’s my first week on the job, and treating confusion as a signpost instead of a failure.

If you’re newer to blue team work, or you’re restarting like me, feel free to follow along.

I’ll share the wins, the mistakes, and the bits that made me stop and say, “Wait… that’s how that works?”

Onward.