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About Me
My name is Landry Allen, and I have a B.S. in Cybersecurity from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. I have a diverse professional and educational background and am always learning something new. I am originally from Louisiana, but I have lived in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia for six years with my husband and two children. Thank you for you your interest, and please contact me with any questions.
You will face many defeats in life,
but never let yourself be defeated.
Maya Angelou
My Story
At 31 years old, I decided to go back to college and get my nursing degree. As someone that loves helping people and having the ability to always learn something new, nursing seemed like the perfect career for me. Upon return to college, I maintained a 4.0 each and every semester, made a 93 on my nursing school entrance exam, and was one of 75 accepted into my program out of nearly 400 applicants. The program started, and I continued to thrive through the first two semesters.
However, everything changed when the pandemic began. All of a sudden we were learning by zoom and clinical hours were canceled. Prior to 3rd semester, we were notified that we would have to make up those hours the following semester in addition to the already assigned hours. Unfortunately, my husband was deployed and I could not meet the new scheduling requirements. The impossible decision to leave the program was devastating, but one I had to make. I decided I would not let that hold me back from finishing school when I was only two semesters from graduating.
That day, I chose my new career path: cybersecurity. Many think this is a very strange and drastically different career path, but I disagree. As a nurse, you are required to have the ability to critically think and find solutions to multi-factor problems. When a patient is presenting with multiple problems, a nurse has to think about an approach unique to the person. Similarly, a cybersecurity professional has to learn about the network and organization they are protecting and find solutions unique to their system. Though I am not working with human patients in this career, I do get to take a complicated problem and find solutions just for them. As someone that loves research and challenging tasks, cybersecurity offers me both.