I really enjoyed this Pentesting story. The practical day-to-day challenge of being a pentester trying to break into a company with good security practices. Reading it reminded me of how stressed I felt a week into a pentest and still had not gotten a foothold; a little PTSD.
https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/2023/08/31/pentales-what-its-like-on-the-red-team/