Rutgers Business School’s Unique Career Pathway Programs

For Eric Yao, a high school student in Rockville, Maryland, Rutgers Business School offered proximity to New York City (“the capital of the world,” as he puts it), an extremely large alumni network, and the opportunity to study at a tier-one research university. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey became his top choice, and he enrolled.

When Yao was selected for Rutgers’ Road to Wall Street program, it opened opportunities to learn the ins and outs of business beyond the walls of a classroom.

“The opportunity to deep-dive into business and finance is an opportunity found nowhere else,” said Yao.

The program gave Yao the confidence, poise, and knowledge to obtain internships, including in wealth management, leading to a full-time job as an analyst at a venture capital firm after he graduated in 2023. 

“I would not be on the same trajectory without the guidance, mentorship, and community that came from the Road to Wall Street program,” Yao says. “I joined a community of like-minded individuals driven towards high-impact careers before even knowing what finance or investment banking encompassed, and forged my own path with the support of mentors and peers.” 

Now in its 11th year, Rutgers Business School’s Road to Wall Street program was the first of many Road to Success programs the school has built to provide a focused curriculum, mentors, career coaching, and guidance to propel students into jobs in top industries. The programs make the business world a tangible reality through internships, access to top companies, and connections to Rutgers’ long line of influential and industry-shaping alumni. 

Recognized for academic excellence, intellectual innovation, inspirational leadership, and embodiment of the intrinsic value of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Rutgers Business School is a force to be reckoned with in the national and global arenas. New Jersey is a great place to live and learn and with strong employment outcomes, Rutgers Business School has been consistently ranked one of the Best Undergraduate Business Schools in the U.S. by Poets & Quants. 

Here is an overview of the five Rutgers Business School Road to Success programs:

Road to Wall Street

“Send me some resumes!” Imagine hearing that from someone at a top Wall Street firm or bank, and the person making the request is a Rutgers alum. It is a refrain that the Road to Wall Street staff are quite familiar with. The Wall Street world is a clubby environment, and Rutgers vast alumni network helps create the connections students need to succeed in investment banking, finance, and business. Road to Wall Street had a 100 percent placement rate for full-time jobs for its graduates in 2023.

Founded in 2011, Road to Wall Street is an intensive three-year program for students to acquire the skills, knowledge and connections to jumpstart a career in finance and business. One-on-one counseling offers support in recruitment, career services, networking and more. 

Summer training provides readings on mindset, leadership, and more, plus online courses in finance and investment analysis. A three-credit financial modeling and valuation course exposes the students to the technical and market knowledge required on Wall Street. 

A robust mentorship program matches each student with three mentors: a Road to Wall Street alum, a professional in the field with 10 or more years of experience, and an upper-class student in the program. Having three mentors gives the student special, targeted insight and advice about the industry. 

Finally, access, access, access. Students connect with industry executives through guest lectures, site visits, networking events, and workshops. Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, PGIM, and RBC are just some of the companies connected to the Road to Wall Street program.

For a career on Wall Street, internships are crucial, especially during the summer after junior year because those opportunities are considered the best chance of securing a full-time job. Wall Street firms have very early recruiting timelines–the process for summer internships for rising seniors begins when they are sophomores–and Road to Wall Street not only steers students through the timeline but ensures they are as prepared to shine on interviews by providing weekly recruitment meetings and personalized support. 

Many students from the Road to Wall Street program have been named some of Poets & Quants “Best & Brightest,” including Nethra Jayaprakash in 2023, Christina Kallinosis in 2020, and Ty-Lynn Johnson also in 2020.

Road to Silicon V/Alley

Google, Microsoft, AWS, Cisco. Those are just some of the companies where Road to Silicon V/Alley students have interned or landed full-time jobs. Whether Silicon Valley in California or Silicon Alley in Manhattan, the program serves as a pipeline for students to connect with top technology companies, as well as buzzy startups. For students who want to be intrapreneurs inside companies, the program prepares them for corporate leadership too. 

Ranked a top 10 business school for entrepreneurs by Bloomberg, Rutgers uses an interdisciplinary approach allowing all majors to participate in Road to Silicon V/Alley and access the skills and networks they need to accelerate their careers. By creating opportunities for students to build the skills required for successfully implementing innovative ideas, the program provides access to company and incubator site visits, conversations with thought leaders, and mentorships with tech professionals. 

Case competitions offer experiential learning and teach students soft skills such as public speaking and leadership. One Rutgers team won the Brandstorm International Competition by L’Oréal at the local, state, and national levels, representing the U.S. at the global contest in Paris.

To understand the convergence of innovation and business acumen, program participants have direct access to executive-level thinking through guest speakers, workshops, and conferences. Access to specialized job and internship placement allows students to work for top companies. From a tactical standpoint, students can also take certification workshops in A.I. fundamentals. To jumpstart their own ventures, entrepreneurial students can tap hackathons, leads on angel funding, and support for prototyping. 

A special feature highlight of the Road to Silicon V/Alley program for many students is the trip to Silicon Valley, including the Startup Grind Global Conference where they met luminaries and CEOs. For Achintya Singh, the trip’s highlight was visiting Google’s headquarters and meeting with a software engineering executive. 

“His passion, knowledge, and patience inspired us and sparked our curiosity,” said Singh. “This unforgettable experience fueled our love for technology and innovation.” Through Road to Silicon V/Alley, Singh landed a software engineering internship with Google. The 2023 graduate of Rutgers now works as a software engineer at Bank of America.

Launched in 2019, Road to Silicon V/Alley also brings diversity to an industry that has historically struggled to be diverse. Almost 45% of the cohort is female, and the program actively supports minorities and underrepresented students.

Road to Consulting

A career in consulting can sound enticing and lucrative. But it’s not for everyone. The Road to Consulting program helps students understand what consulting is–and is not–by giving them an insider’s look at the industry. 

The two-year pipeline program springboards students into coveted management consulting roles. Road to Consulting helps students land jobs in consulting but, more importantly, learn the soft skills and interpersonal traits needed to succeed in the field. Started in 2021, the program’s job placement rate is nearly 100 percent. 

Companies like Accenture, PwC, Boston Consulting Group, KPMG, EY and more hire Road to Consulting students for internships and full-time jobs. Because the recruiting process for consulting firms is so structured, the Road to Consulting program guides students through the timeline and assists with resume preparation, mock interviews, and other tips to land roles. 

Road to Consulting students also participate in hands-on consulting projects, working with an actual client for three months and strategizing bold solutions to current business problems. Case competitions and access to exclusive networking opportunities give students the chance to showcase what they have learned. 

A special focus of Road to Consulting involves identifying students from underrepresented communities who may be unaware of consulting as a career choice. The program opens the aperture of the student’s goals, presenting new opportunities they may have never dreamed of.

Road to CPA

A Certified Public Accounting license can open doors to excellent career options, professional advancement, and financial rewards. But the path to licensure can feel like a maze, with each state having different requirements, not to mention the rigors of passing the exam. 

Rutgers’ Road to CPA shines a light on the best route for navigating the exam and getting the license. A dedicated advisor gives students guidance and structure through what can be an opaque process. The one-on-one advising helps students decide how to structure their academic courses to meet the 150 credit-hour requirement to sit for the CPA exam, and whether to pursue a master’s degree. 

Job openings in the accounting field are increasing as the number of students graduating with an accounting degree in the U.S. declines. This provides a bright career path for students who earn a CPA. Employment for CPAs is projected to grow by 22% between now and 2028, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Becoming a CPA can boost your salary too. CPAs earn salaries 10-15% higher than regular accountants and have the potential to boost their earnings by $1 million during their lifetime compared to a non-CPA in the same position, according to the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA).

Rutgers Business School’s Road to CPA also provides programming so students can learn about career opportunities in public accounting plus the many other options in the corporate sector where a CPA can be valuable. The mentorship aspect of Road to CPA matches students with an experienced professional in the field, allowing them to tap their wisdom and insight with personalized advice.

Road to Supply Chain Leadership

Supply chain is a vast field, encompassing planning, procurement, manufacturing, distribution, automation and technology. A student who wants to major in supply chain may not know which area would be the best to pursue after graduation. The Road to Supply Chain Leadership provides clarity as students make future career plans.

Through the program, students can experience supply chain at top companies through internships, site visits, mentorships and other opportunities, allowing them to see actual supply chain operations. New Jersey is a leader in pharma and biotech, and companies connected with the Road to Supply Chain Leadership program include Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Bayer and Bristol Myers Squibb. For students interested in other industries, opportunities are available at Panasonic, Unilever, Estee Lauder, Colgate-Palmolive, and Hermann Services.

Launched in spring 2023, the Road to Supply Chain Leadership program allows students to apply concepts and theories to real-world situations while also developing soft skills such as critical thinking, communications, and negotiating. The program is following the model of the other Road to Success Programs, by providing mentoring, networking, internship opportunities, and job preparedness.