As a pentester with web development experience and OSCP certification, the author initially struggled to find bugs in bug bounty programs, which he had expected to be an easy side hustle. However, after attending a security meetup and meeting Shubs (@infosec_au), who spoke about using automation to discover ephemeral bugs and interesting targets, the author's approach changed significantly. He realized that as a pentester, he was paid for his time, whereas in bug bounty hunting, he was paid for impact, which meant altering his hacking style to focus on finding unique and impactful bugs rather than following established methodologies. The key takeaways include focusing on gaps in coverage, using automation to scale out efforts, performing continuous monitoring and testing, and leveraging creativity and experimentation to find novel bugs.