24.7 SOC Analyst is an unforgiving job. Long hours and an intense workload, however it's the most common 'entry-level' position available in most metropolitan areas. Depending on the organisation, you may have greater or less freedom of work, able to follow through and conduct incident response yourself. In the end, the job comes back to the same thing: Investigating alerts, triaging and conducting first level analysis to escalate to responder teams.
About your first job:
What was your first job in cybersecurity? When was that, and what were your responsibilities?
My first job was Associate Security Analyst, on a 24/7 roster within a MSSP SOC. I would handle incoming alerts, triage and pass escalations on to on-site resolver teams.
Can you discuss some specific tasks you did, or goals you contributed towards?