Red carpet photo shoots, festive balloons, giveaways, and a visit from Dean Vallabh “Samba” Sambamurthy—the Wisconsin School of Business pulled out all the stops during the school’s inaugural Career Signing Day. Modeled after popular signing day events for athletes, the event honors students accepting offers for summer internships and full-time roles post-graduation.
More than 90 Business Badgers with accepted offers for internships and full-time positions attended the gathering, chatting with Sambamurthy about their plans and posing for pictures on the cardinal red carpet, a sign in hand touting their next professional destination.
“It’s meant to be a celebration for students to be able to just recognize their accomplishments,” says Melissa Leffin, executive director of Career, Employer, and Pathway Engagement with WSB’s Undergraduate Program Office. “Our hope was to give them a really cool photo op to show off where they’re headed, and they can then post that on LinkedIn, celebrate with their network, and keep building their professional brand.”
Approximately 200 career outcomes were already reported by Signing Day from December graduates and May 2026 graduates who already have jobs lined up, says Leffin.
“I think the benefit of this event for WSB is, not only do we get to celebrate our students, but it’s really helping us as a career team drive the culture of sharing career information,” Leffin says. “It shows fellow students the vast variety of companies that our students go to. The more data we have, the better we can support students, the more we can bring in employers that they are interested in.”
For the Class of 2025, 94% of students seeking a full-time job secured one by September 30, and the overall average salary also increased. Leffin says her team continues to see placements in competitive fields within growth industries, such as consulting and finance, where students receive job offers early—something that helps the team with career outcome data collection. WSB students continue to perform well in the school’s core markets of Chicago, New York City, Madison, and others, but this year also saw significant growth in destinations such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston.
From Madison to Manhattan
Attendee and December graduate Katie Wong (BBA ’25) has a full-time position waiting for her at Capital One in Chicago this July. In the interim, she’ll be traveling solo in Southeast Asia and volunteering in Thailand. “All of the classes and prep work really prepared me this semester,” Wong says.
Twin brothers Devaj Mehta (BBA ’27) and Devin Mehta (BBA ’27), both juniors, have internships within two blocks of each other this summer in New York City. Devaj will be working for Cain Brothers, a health care investment banking firm that specializes in hospital systems.
“I started to realize that finance is a very deep career field; there are so many different things you can do within it.”
–Devaj Mehta
The finance major says he knew since high school that he wanted to do something finance-related but also “something where you get to interact with people.” He arrived at WSB and spoke to other junior and senior Business Badgers about their career paths.
“I started to realize that finance is a very deep career field; there are so many different things you can do within it,” says Devaj. “What launched my experience into finance was the different amount of things that you can do. You can work on numbers and technical things but still have these interactions with people that are very fulfilling.”
Devin’s summer internship will be with Intrepid Investment Bankers in New York City, a leading investment banking and investment management firm. A double major in finance and risk management, he’ll be acting as an advisor, helping to support analysts in their daily role of buying and selling companies, and employing financial modeling.
The brothers share twin goals for a successful summer. “The goal would be to get a full-time offer and head back,” Devin says. “That would be awesome.”
Nurturing Growth, Celebrating Together
Jenny Lanzel, assistant director of career experiences and events, notes that while undergraduates made up the bulk of this year’s attendance, the event is open to all students. She expects to see the diversity of the participant pool—from undergraduate to doctoral candidates—expand.
“We want to encourage students to invite their professors, advisors, mentors, or their career coaches they’ve worked closely with to come to this event as well,” Lanzel says. “We want it to feel like a community.”
“Our students do amazing things when they leave here, but we want them to be able to celebrate that throughout their experience, not just at graduation,” Leffin adds. “It’s a real-time acknowledgement of all the hard work that’s gone into their getting these incredible opportunities.”
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