Up & Comers: DHS’ Joel Mulligan

FS: Do you have mentors? Have you encountered some people who have helped guide you through your career path?

Joel Mulligan: Yeah, most definitely. One person is my father. He’s been in the Coast Guard for 38 years now and also does government work sometimes. He really helped me decide where I should go. Cybersecurity was something he suggested. So he’s been a really good help and a really good mentor to me. Another person, Mike Roskind, who’s my boss right now, really got me in and has always had confidence in me, always said really good things about me and gave me not only the confidence, but the backing that I needed. I think that’s an important thing about being a mentor, it’s not just talking the talk, but walking the walk – backing up the people who are under you and backing up people who look up to you in a way that enhances their growth.

FedScoop: After four months here at DHS, what’s next for you? Over the next year, the next five years, what are we looking at?

JM: Information security is a great, great field. It’s supposed to be growing by leaps and bounds. I don’t know exactly what’s next, but I’d love to stay in the information security field, either doing policy work, doing information security analysis, or getting into the nitty-gritty stuff, doing network security or even software development security. I don’t know what’s next. I’m excited about it. I think the field is open and it’s burgeoning and it’s going to be huge. The way things are going – the Internet of Things, networking all items of your life, it’s going to happen. The further we get into information being a daily and constant part of our lives, the more we’re going to need to make ourselves secure. I don’t know where I’ll be, but I’ll enjoy it and it will be in information security.

FS: Are you looking to stay in the government?

JM: It’s one of those things – like when I said earlier that I wanted to be a lawyer, I think you need to be open to pivoting on, not only what you think you want, but also your expectations. So I don’t know, but we’ll find out.