Karishma Tallreja’s cybersecurity résumé reads like a wish list for an aspiring professional: an internship with Google, participation in the ReliaQuest Cybersecurity Labs program, hands-on projects and experience developing cybersecurity curriculum for more than 50 high school students. But she said there was one thing she rarely felt before applying for the next opportunity: ready.
“I never felt ready to apply for an internship or to go for an opportunity,” Tallreja said. “I kind of told myself that I’m never going to feel ready.”
So, she started applying anyway.
That mindset helped take the Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing senior from classroom projects and student organizations to a security consulting internship with Google’s Mandiant team in New York City. She now works as a security analyst with Cyber Florida at the University of South Florida.
Tallreja’s arrival at USF came without a set path in front of her. Early on, she tried different experiences to learn what parts of cybersecurity interested her most.
“I kind of wanted to put myself in everything and see if I actually like it or not,” she said.
Her first jobs helped build skills that did not always look technical on paper. As a freshman, she worked as a teaching assistant for a calculus course. Later, she helped develop cybersecurity curriculum for high school students through CodeBreakHers, creating hands-on activities involving Linux, malware analysis and digital forensics. She helped design curriculum for more than 50 students, including cybersecurity challenges involving network analysis, digital forensics and identifying security threats.
“When you’re teaching others, you have to make sure you know the stuff,” she said.
Over time, Tallreja discovered she was especially interested in blue team cybersecurity, which focuses on defending computer systems and networks against cyber threats, and work that combined technical problem-solving with collaboration.
As she pursued internships, advisors in the Bellini College helped her prepare through résumé reviews, application support and mock interviews. Kurt Friday, an assistant professor of instruction, connected her with the advising team when she reached out for help preparing for an interview. Career fairs provided opportunities to practice pitching herself and talking with recruiters.
That combination helped her land an internship with Google, where she worked on two internal projects and shadowed client engagements as a security consultant intern.
“I knew I wanted to work in environments where I can interact with people, but also work on technical stuff,” she said.
Building beyond the classroom
Tallreja also learned early that coursework alone would not tell the full story of what she could do.
During her sophomore year, she began applying concepts from class and turning them into personal projects. After enjoying the labs in a Foundations of Cybersecurity course, she asked William Gauvin, a professor of practice in the Bellini College, how she could recreate some of that work on her own virtual machine, a software-based computer that allows users to run operating systems and experiment with tools in a virtual environment.
That question became a larger habit.
Tallreja started building projects, documenting them and creating a GitHub portfolio, an online collection where she could share and showcase her technical work, to show what she was learning. One project she recommends to other cybersecurity students is building a home lab, where students can experiment with virtual machines, security tools and real-world scenarios.
During a cybersecurity internship with Prodigy InfoTech, Tallreja completed hands-on projects involving password encryption, hiding information within images and developing keylogging software. She documented her work in a public GitHub repository, gaining practical experience with Python programming, cryptography and basic network security principles.
“You’re reading the textbook, right? But you’re not really understanding how things look in real life,” she said. “Whatever you learn, try to make a project out of it.”
She continues to look for that kind of hands-on learning at Bellini College. Her favorite current course, Network Security and Firewalls, taught by Gauvin, gives her opportunities to work through challenging labs while building projects she can document and add to her résumé.
One particularly challenging assignment involved file injection and uploading attacks. Working in a controlled environment with an intentionally vulnerable web application, Tallreja explored how weaknesses in file handling could expose sensitive information and allow unauthorized commands to run on a server.
The challenge was understanding how the application, its code and the network connections between virtual machines worked together. Through five activities, she learned how a vulnerability in one application could affect an entire system and gained a better understanding of the threats cybersecurity professionals work to prevent.
Learning through leadership
Tallreja said some of the experiences employers ask about most are the ones that happen outside the classroom.
She has been involved in several technology and engineering organizations at USF and now serves as president of Women in CyberSecurity at USF. Through those roles, she learned to manage teams, take responsibility and work through situations when things do not go as planned.
As outreach lead for the Society of Women Engineers, Tallreja organized STEM activities for more than 200 young students at STEM-a-palooza. She also coordinated volunteer events and helped build partnerships with local schools and organizations to promote STEM education.
During her time as vice president for events for Women in Tech and Entrepreneurship at USF, Tallreja faced an unexpected setback while organizing a mock interview event connecting students with industry professionals. Just four days before the event, she learned the reserved venue was no longer available, despite the interviewers, food and parking arrangements already being finalized.
After unsuccessfully searching for another campus space, Tallreja reached out to other student organizations for help. Another club agreed to collaborate and share its reserved space. She coordinated the location change and personally contacted the interviewers to ensure they had the updated information.
The event went ahead as scheduled, and the challenge led to a new partnership between student organizations. For Tallreja, it reinforced the importance of staying calm, adapting quickly and knowing when to ask others for help.
Tallreja said those experiences helped her build the people and leadership skills that complement her technical education.
“Bellini played a great role in the soft skills that I have today, in the people skills, and all the amazing opportunities,” she said.
She believes that involvement can also make a difference when students begin competing for jobs and internships.
“You really stand out in front of an employer when you show them that you are actually passionate about what you’re doing, and you’re not just going to classes,” she said.
For Tallreja, that has become one of the biggest lessons of her college experience. You do not have to know exactly where you are going before you start moving.
“You’re going to figure it out along the way,” she said. “Just stay proactive, don’t be afraid to reach out to people and ask for help, and just always apply for that opportunity and never hold yourself back.”