Meet Wahab

Can you talk about a project that has been particularly satisfying?

My role in the Booz Allen Cyber Internship Program has been a great experience.  The internship programs mirror client work, so we try to give our interns real-world experiences where they can develop and hone certain skills. Last summer I helped lead a team of interns and staff who reverse engineered a traffic control system. That was very interesting – the interns were able to find a lot of vulnerabilities. We had an opportunity to brief the company on the issues, and the project got a lot of visibility. It helped to create a new policy for the firm on how we disclose vulnerabilities to industry.

What advice would you offer to someone looking to grow their career?

Try to look at every opportunity as optimistically as you can. You never know what you're going to learn from it. Even if it is something you weren't intending to do from the beginning – every opportunity has ability to teach you something. I don't think a lot of people realize that. Stay open to as many opportunities as you can, especially those that might require you to reach out of your comfort zone, because you will learn the most when you are stretched.​