July 14, 2025

by Lauren Ferguson

Once a Roadrunner, always a Roadrunner.

About a dozen of Ramapo College of New Jersey’s 2025 graduates returned to the college’s welcoming Mahwah campus for a one-day bootcamp aimed at giving them the tools to conduct successful full-time job searches.

The Job Search Bootcamp, held in July, was the first ever put on by the Cahill Career Development Center.

“Everyone goes to college to get that job post-college, so through a career services standpoint, we think it’s one of the most important things we could do in supporting individuals in that first step after graduating” said Michelle Guzik, assistant director of the career center and career advisor for the School of Social Science and Human Services.

The goal of the event was to walk new alumni through the job search process from beginning to end, providing them with tools and methods for best practice.

Career advisors taught the alumni how to find potential employers in their industry and local to them, how to read a job description, tailor their resumes, and use AI to supplement their job searches for ideal results.

“Recruiters are using technology, applicant tracking systems, and AI to vet through resumes and candidates. So we think it’s important to incorporate AI into the job search,” Guzik said. She said that could mean asking AI what companies are in a certain geographic area that are related to a specific industry that would be hiring for new graduates, or what job titles someone should look for through different search engines that would relate to a specific major.

“Sometimes companies will have job titles that are just like specialist one or researcher and it doesn’t really give much context. But by allowing AI to translate that for you and give you a little snippet, it can really help in saying, ‘oh, yeah, I do want to do this,’ or, ‘oh, this isn’t really for me,” she explained.

Career advisors conducted a bootcamp for new alumni.

Guzik said that an alumni’s first job out of college is a stepping stone, but learning to conduct a job search is a skill they will carry for their entire careers.

“It helps you through your whole life. If you can understand how to navigate this process, you’ll be able to job search until you retire,” she said.

Despite the alumni who participated in the bootcamp having a wide range of majors and interests – from accounting to biology to visual arts – the overall job search process is consistent, Guzik said.

“It’s just about having the right tools, right job boards and looking in the right places,”
she said.

It is also about making connections with other alumni, using LinkedIn to expand their networks, doing coffee chats and conversational interviews, and utilizing the resources and expansive network they have as Ramapo alumni, she said.

“We have a lot of great alumni, in a lot of amazing roles that want to give back,” she said.

After “overwhelmingly positive” feedback, the Cahill Career Development Center plans to host its second Job Search Bootcamp in August.