The endless research loop
You have read the roadmaps, saved the videos, and are no closer to a decision. More information is not what you are missing. A clear next step is.
A career decision before a training decision
SHOULD YOU START A CAREER IN CYBERSECURITY? FIRST, DECIDE IF THE MOVE MAKES SENSE.
Explore the work, weigh the commitment, and decide whether cybersecurity belongs in your future. Start with five free Recon sessions. Write your own Go, No or Not Yet.
Free Recon. Applications are not open on this website yet.
Before the first course
Five sessions.
Your own conclusion.
- 01Where you are
- 02What cyber work is
- 03The market
- 04Cost and risk
- 05Decision record
The honest part
Safe work pays the bills.Meaningful work makes you want to get up in the morning.
If you are thinking about cybersecurity, you have probably felt the pull already: a quiet sense that your current path is fine, but not quite yours. And a louder fear that switching now would be naive, expensive, or too late.
The fear of starting over
You have already built something. Being a beginner again, in public, at your age, feels heavier than any technical hurdle. It is also more common than you think.
The hype you cannot trust
Every ad promises six figures in six months. You want a straight answer from someone who does the work, not someone selling a course.
Start free and decide for yourself. If you continue, choose how much support you want along the way.
Select any stage to see what happens there.
You examine the work, the market and your circumstances, and leave with notes to support your own decision.
Explore this stage ›You write Go, No or Not Yet and leave with a decision record and your reasons.
Explore this stage ›You choose to continue →
FreePaid
You choose whether to join paid Access and, if you continue, get the material for researching a direction and building your plan.
Explore this stage ›Optional support for Research: Mesh and Root.
Optional support for this stage: MeshRoot
You compare roles and their requirements, and leave with a direction to investigate and reasons for choosing it.
Explore this stage ›Optional support for Roadmap: Mesh and Root.
Optional support for this stage: MeshRoot
You order learning and portfolio work into a self-paced plan; technical training happens elsewhere.
Explore this stage ›Optional support for Career plan: Mesh and Root.
Optional support for this stage: MeshRoot
You set checkpoints for your portfolio, applications and outreach, and leave with next steps that account for your circumstances.
Explore this stage ›Optional support for Interview: Root.
Optional support for this stage: Root
You prepare to explain your experience and portfolio, and leave with answers grounded in work you can discuss.
Explore this stage ›Optional support for Target role: Mesh and Root.
Optional support for this stage: MeshRoot
You review applications and feedback to decide your next steps toward a target role, with no guaranteed hiring outcome.
Explore this stage ›Stage / Recon
Free, all the way through
You examine the work, the market and your circumstances, and leave with notes to support your own decision.
Explore this stageSection 01 / Orientation
Decide on the career before the course.
A certification tells you what to study. It cannot tell you how a career change fits your working week, your responsibilities or the work you want to do. From Zero To Cyber gives you a structure for examining those questions.
Start with free Recon to decide whether to pursue the move. If your answer is Go, paid Access helps you choose a direction and plan the work. Technical training happens elsewhere.
Career decisionIn scope
Direction + planningIn scope
Tools + labsOut of scope
Exam preparationOut of scope
A decision and planning program.
Technical training happens elsewhere.
Stuck before the first course
Where should I start? Which course? Which certification? Before you spend money answering those questions, examine what the work involves and what the move would ask of you.
Read. Reflect. Write it down.
Five Recon sessions take you through your starting point, cyber work, the market, cost and risk. You finish with a decision record in your own words.
Your decision. Your route.
Go, No and Not Yet are all complete Recon outcomes. You keep your reasoning and decide what comes next. Choosing Go creates no obligation to buy Access.
Section 02 / The program
A free decision. An optional next step.
02 / Your decision
Go. No. Not Yet.
You write the reason.
Every outcome is respected.
Recon / The decision comes first
Explore free Recon Free. All the way through.
Five sessions and your own decision record. Go, No and Not Yet are all respected.
Direction + plan
Access
After your own Go, choose a direction and design the route.
€497one-time
Start with your own Go decision in free Recon.
What it adds
- Career Spectrum Assessment
- Direction and learning plan
- Portfolio plan
- Job-search materials and tracker
Community + live calls
Mesh
Access, with other Navigators doing the work alongside you.
€97/ month
Access is required. Membership adds ongoing support.
What it adds
- Private community organized around the work
- One live group call every week
- Peer review under written norms
- Monthly self-reported checkpoint
Direct creator support
Root
Mesh support, plus direct work with the person who built it.
€397/ month
Root requires Mesh. Capacity: twenty Navigators.
What it adds
- Everything in Mesh
- Two scheduled 45-minute calls a month
- A private line for questions
- Personal review of your route and search materials
Prices are shown in EUR. Tax treatment and final purchase terms will be stated before checkout opens. Purchases and memberships are not available on this website yet.
In their words
What others say about working with me.
Recommendations from people I’ve coached, mentored and worked alongside.
Excerpts from my professional recommendations, published on liviumunteanu.com.
“Liviu is one of those rare mentors who listens deeply before offering anything. Over a few career coaching sessions, he did something I didn't expect: rather than handing me advice, he asked the kind of questions that led me to my own answers.”
Bogdan FRPA Developer
“Liviu has a remarkable ability to explain complex concepts in a clear and practical way, and his patience and willingness to share his knowledge made a huge difference in my learning experience.”
Eduard MateiCyber security engineer la Honeywell
“Liviu has the coaching skills and methods to help the Leader inside you manifest with freedom and creativity, driven by passion and very aware of your own values and created constraints, saboteurs.”
Ana-Maria SchiporDirector of Software Engineering
“Liviu is an excellent professional. I had the pleasure of working with him in the same team at Honeywell, and I can say that his positive view on life and joy for work is contagious. Liviu leads by example.”
Oana IonescuCybersecurity Customer Success Manager
“As a colleague, Liviu was very generous with his time and expertise when it came to helping out fellow colleagues and working together on different projects.”
Codrin Alexandru BurlaSenior Network Security DevOps Engineer @ EU Comission
“Sensible, calm under pressure, extremely knowledgeable and he reacts rapidly to all situations even those outside the scope of the role he was in.”
James DysonBuilding teams, securing systems, and occasionally making sense of the chaos.
“Liviu had an excellent work ethic and was a great team player. He was patient and an excellent communicator helping up skill more junior members of the team.”
Rik IrvineOptimistic Cyber defender and hopeful drummer.
“He was an outstanding colleague, always there to help, highly skilled, and excellent at solving the IT or OT engineering issues we encountered.”
Liviu Gabriel PetcuCyber Defence OT Team Manager
These recommendations describe earlier coaching and professional work.
Section 03 / Instrument Builder
Who calibrated this
Liviu Munteanu / BuilderPractitioner.
Practitioner.
Career changer.
Career coach.
The person behind the program.
My professional backgroundHi, I’m Liviu.
For 12 years, I wore a Romanian Navy officer’s uniform. The steady money, the career ladder, the approval from others: on paper, it all looked right. I was moving further from the life I wanted.
In October 2015, I survived the Colectiv fire in Romania. Afterwards, I began to question what I had been postponing. Being alive and living with purpose mattered more to me than a polished profile or a safe career path.
Moving into civilian cybersecurity meant making difficult choices without knowing how they would turn out. The sleepless nights, the overwhelming options, the fear that I wasn’t good enough: I lived through them.
That experience shapes the way I work.
Alongside security engineering and leadership, I help people think through career changes. I bring experience from the work and from making the move myself. You bring your circumstances and your judgment.
I can share what I’ve learned, help you examine the options, and work with you on a plan. The decision stays with you.
- CISSP
- CISM
- A-CCISO
- Check Point CCSE
- Palo Alto PCNSE
- CCNA Security
- CompTIA Security+
Numbers That Matter
Experience I bring to the work.
Hover to pause. Focus to explore with arrow keys.Background and experience
The work / After your own Go
Know what you’re working toward.
After a Go decision in Recon, Access helps you turn a direction into practical choices: what to learn, what to build, and how to approach your search.
Access €497 one-time. Mesh €97/month. Root €397/month. Purchases are not available on this website.
- 01
Career Spectrum Assessment
Your work-preference picture
- 02
Direction design
Your route document
- 03
Learning plan
Your training sequence
- 04
Portfolio plan
Your evidence plan
- 05
Job-search toolkit
Your search materials and tracker
Section 04 / FAQ
Before you commit.
Is Recon really free?
Yes. All five sessions and the decision record belong to free Recon. Choosing a direction and planning how to build toward it belong to paid Access. The boundary is explained before any work begins.
Read the free / paid line ↗Do I need a technical background?
No technical background is needed for Recon. It is written for complete beginners and people considering a move from another field. You examine what the work involves before deciding.
What if my answer is No or Not Yet?
Both are complete, respected outcomes. No records a decision against the move. Not Yet records a decision to revisit it. Neither is a failed result, and neither requires you to buy anything.
Can I apply on this website?
Not yet. The application page is a preview. Its fields and consent controls are disabled, and it cannot collect, save or send information.
Read application preview ↗Start with the question
Start with the five free sessions.
See what Recon covers and what you’ll write at the end. No technical background is needed.
Explore free Recon
Applications are not open on this website yet.