Anoushka Rajeev: landing internships by volunteering at the career fair

Anoushka Rajeev

After volunteering at the fall 2022 career fairs, Anoushka Rajeev landed not one—but TWO—internship experiences for the spring semester and upcoming summer.

Volunteers serve critical roles at career fairs and help ensure employers and other guests have a positive experience before and during the event. By volunteering, students also get additional facetime with employers and receive exclusive early-access to the fair. Student volunteers are resourceful and helpful—and employers notice.

For Anoushka, volunteering at the career fair meant personal networking time that led to two internship experiences. We connected with Anoushka to learn about her current and upcoming internship experience.

Tell us about your internship experiences.

For my spring internship, I am a human resources intern for Nexus Engineering Group and will assist their human resources department with event planning, interviews and scheduling and also job rotation while in the role. Over the summer, I am pursuing an opportunity as a sales intern for Howmet Aerospace and will have the opportunity to interact first-hand with wheel buyers and conduct sales activities for the company. I will primarily be working with truck companies and working on sales for wheel systems.

How did you find out about these opportunities?

I found out about these companies from the Career Fair this past fall. I worked as a volunteer on both days of the fair and assisted employers with finding their table and setting up. I actually met both of these companies when they were looking for engineering and science students. I still decided to hand them a copy of my resume and request them to forward it to their human resources departments. Being a psychology and business management student, I was not expecting anything to come out of this day, but I actually ended up getting four interviews and taking two offers!

Do you have any advice for students who are seeking opportunities?

Some advice I would share is to not feel dejected or deflated when you first come to CWRU and have some difficulty finding opportunities. Put yourself out there and make the most of every opportunity, no matter how futile it might seem because you never know when you will see an opportunity that opens doors for you. Always be open to new people and experiences, building relationships, and reaching out to mentors and support systems early.