Across the country right now, thousands of college students and recent graduates are refreshing job boards like it’s a competitive sport. John Perrotti, fresh out of Rider University with a B.S. in Computer Science, was one of them, a proud member of the “I’ve applied to 300 jobs and all I got was this rejection email” club. Despite nearly two years applying for internships, dozens of interviews, and enough applications to crash a server, the elusive internship never materialized. Like many students, John found himself stuck at the starting line with no one willing to hand him the baton.
By his final semester, John was running low on hope and high on LinkedIn notifications. No internship, no experience, and a creeping suspicion that employers expected him to have built the next Google in his dorm room. Then he met Dr. Mace, Rider’s VP for Community Engagement & Belonging, a man with a knack for spotting potential and, apparently, rescuing stranded computer science majors. Rider had just partnered with the Trenton Downtown Association (TDA), and TDA happened to be looking for Web Application Interns. Suddenly, John’s luck started to look less like a flatline.
After meeting with Amanda Donald, TDA’s Assistant Director, and Executive Director Tom Rust, John finally heard the words every job‑hunting student dreams of: “We’d like to bring you on.” He was thrilled — and possibly a little shocked — to land his first internship. TDA saw what others had missed: a technical mind ready to grow. John dove into web design, development, data analytics, and even AI engineering, discovering that the work he was doing had a real impact on the Trenton community. Not bad for someone who had nearly given up.
But the plot thickens.
Shortly after graduation, Sugenny Santiago, formerly Rider’s Career Development & Success STEM coordinator and unofficial guardian angel of stressed-out students, reached out with an even bigger opportunity. She and Dr. Mace were launching the Brodsky Institute for Economic and Community Impact (BIECI) fellowship program, and John’s work with TDA made him a perfect fit. Same skills, bigger stage. More clients, more challenges, more chances to shine.
Over the summer, BIECI took off. It became a powerhouse of experiential learning, connecting Rider students and graduates with real-world projects that supported local businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations across Mercer County and Trenton. TDA became one of BIECI’s clients, meaning John’s internship evolved into a full-fledged fellowship. He was part of the program’s launch, building momentum — unaware that all of this was quietly steering him toward his first job offer.
And then came the assignment.
One day at the TDA office, Tom and Amanda handed John a task that could only be described as “heroic” or “punishment,” depending on your caffeine level: research 1,000 businesses and convert them into a usable email database for the Revolutionary Mile marketing campaign. It was tedious, time-consuming, and absolutely essential. John wasn’t exactly thrilled, but he rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
That’s when the magic happened.
While slogging through businesses starting with the letter “A,” John stumbled upon Ancero, an IT solutions provider in Mount Laurel. He almost closed the tab — no marketing email, nothing useful for the directory — until he noticed something interesting: Ancero was hiring. He hadn’t been applying to jobs lately, but figured, why not? It only takes a few minutes to send an application, and he had nothing to lose.
Thirty minutes later, his inbox lit up with an interview invitation.
Cue the adrenaline.
John prepared like a pro: researching the company, studying their services, learning their client base. But the real game-changer came from a BIECI professional development boot camp he attended the day before, led by Jon Mills, a 30-year Oracle and enterprise sales veteran. The topic? Sales. The lesson? WIIFM — What’s In It For Me? Jon explained that great salespeople don’t just list features; they connect value to the client’s needs. If the product doesn’t solve the client’s problem, the pitch is pointless.
John realized he’d been interviewing like a product brochure.
So he flipped the script.
Instead of rattling off every skill he’d ever learned, he focused on the ones that mattered to Ancero. He asked smart questions. He framed his experience around their needs. He sold himself — not as a general-purpose tech guy, but as someone who could add real value to their team. The interviewers noticed. They appreciated that he wasn’t just trying to impress them; he was trying to help them.
And it worked.
John landed the job.
He credits TDA and BIECI for giving him the experience, confidence, and perspective that made this opportunity possible. While he’s sad to leave the Institute, he’s excited for what comes next and grateful that a boring assignment, a boot camp, and a business starting with the letter “A” changed everything.