Recon Free
Before you make the move,
make sense of it.
Recon has five Parts. They cover cybersecurity work, the job market and your own life, and at the end you write a Decision Record. Recon is for deciding whether to make the move. Access is for choosing a direction and planning how.
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Five Parts.
Your own conclusion.
- 01Start Here
- 02Your Life As It Is
- 03The Work and the Claims
- 04Your Market
- 05Your Risks and Your Decision
Start with Recon and decide for yourself. Then build the move in Access, with as much support as you want.
Select any stage to see what happens there.
You examine the work, the market and your circumstances, and leave with a Recon Logbook to support your own decision.
Explore this stage ›You write Go, No Go or Not Yet, confirm it after at least one night, and leave with a Decision Record and your reasons.
Explore this stage ›Access starts from your Recon Logbook, or from the Entry Check if you have none. Nothing in it is locked.
Explore this stage ›Optional support for this stage: MeshRoot
You read all ten career domains on your Career Spectrum and choose a primary and an adjacent domain, with your reasons.
Explore this stage ›Optional support for this stage: MeshRoot
You test the domain with small real experiments, then build a roadmap with milestones and a plan for each obstacle. Technical training happens elsewhere.
Explore this stage ›Optional support for this stage: MeshRoot
You set up networking, your learning plan and portfolio, and leave with next steps that account for your circumstances.
Explore this stage ›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 this stage: MeshRoot
You review applications and feedback and decide your next steps toward a target role. Nobody can guarantee that you will be hired.
Explore this stage ›Decide whether to make the move
You examine the work, the market and your circumstances, and leave with a Recon Logbook to support your own decision.
Explore this stage01 / Inside Recon
A structure for thinking it through.
Recon takes about 2 h 30, split as you like, plus at least one night before you confirm your decision. Each Part shows its own time. It can take longer if you read English slowly. These are estimates, and I will test them with the first Navigators. When Recon opens, the app saves your progress, so you can stop anywhere and come back. This time is for the decision work only. It tells you nothing about how long a career move takes.
You need no technical background for Recon. It describes the work in plain language before it asks you to decide.
01Start Here
About 16 minutes.
Read what Recon is, what it will never do, and its three endings: Go, No Go and Not Yet. Then write your question in one sentence, two criteria your decision has to meet (each with a number), and who the decision affects.
What you work toward: Your question and two criteria, written before you see any salary or job number.
02Your Life As It Is
About 23 minutes.
Choose three work values out of twelve, and the one you would protect first. Write down your protected hours a week, your monthly costs, your savings and your net pay. Then meet the Six Pillars of a Life Well Lived, one line each, and name the two that would change most and the cost of staying where you are.
What you work toward: Your runway in months, your three values and the cost of staying where you are.
03The Work and the Claims
About 33 minutes.
Meet ten kinds of cyber work, called career domains, on one short card each, with the hard part on every card. Pick two. For each one, write a task you would want and a task you would not. Then note what would suit you: shifts or on-call, mostly writing or mostly talking. Then check four common claims about cyber careers against dated evidence, and pick two opportunities, each written with its cost.
What you work toward: Notes on two career domains, and two opportunities with their costs.
04Your Market
About 40 minutes.
Start from the global picture, then name one target role where you live. Count real job postings, and how many of them ask for 0 to 2 years of experience. Put the entry pay, as monthly net pay, beside your own. Most of this Part is your own searching, and Recon gives you search recipes for your country. All market information carries its source and date.
What you work toward: A dated, three-line Market Summary for one role where you live, with a note on how good the data was.
05Your Risks and Your Decision
About 37 minutes, then at least one night.
Name three to five risks, at least one of them a cost of staying. Rate each one low, medium or high, and flag the ones that would change your decision, each with a sign you would notice. Your evidence goes on one page. Weigh Go, No Go and Not Yet on the same costs, then write your Decision Record. Recon selects no option for you. After at least one night, you reread it and confirm it or change it, and then read only the page for the decision you wrote.
What you work toward: A dated Decision Record in your own words, and a first step with its date.
02 / Your Decision Record
You write the answer.
Go, No Go or Not Yet, with your reasons and the date. Recon gives no verdict and picks no option for you.
The example belongs to Mariam, a made-up Navigator from the Recon Library. Her numbers are examples, not market facts.
Example
Mariam’s Decision Record
The lines that weigh most
Criterion 1, one local entry posting: not met, 0 of 18.
Criterion 2, eight study hours a week: met.
Your decision
Written on 5 October 2026, confirmed on 6 October.
Your reasons
The work lines up with what I do now: sources and summaries. But I found no entry post near me, and I know nobody in the field.
The line for your decision
Trigger: if I have done two informational talks and found one local entry posting, I reopen my Logbook that week. Review date: 1 April 2027.
03 / Three complete outcomes
Each of the three answers is a complete ending.
Go
You decide to move into cyber work. Your outcome page shows a factual card about paid Access, next to a check of your own: talk to someone who does the work before you pay for anything.
No Go
You decide against the move. Your written reason is a complete ending. The page shows what you keep and makes no offer.
Not Yet
You decide to come back to the move later. You write what would need to change and a review date, and Recon can remind you on that date. The page shows no offer.
04 / Signing up
An email address and no waiting.
When Recon opens, signing up asks for three things: an email address, one line you tick to say you do not work in security and are not a recruiter or a vendor, and an optional box for marketing emails, left unticked.
Recon is not meant for people already working in security, recruiters or vendors. You confirm that yourself, and nobody reviews it.
There is no LinkedIn check, no essay, no question about money and no waiting time. When Recon opens, you start straight after signing up.
The app saves your Logbook and your progress. It sends three service emails, and you can switch off each one: a nudge after 7 days without progress, a note when your night has passed, and the reminder for your review date if you wrote Not Yet.
For now, only the layout is public.
Sign-up is not open on this website yet. The preview has one disabled email field and two unticked boxes.
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