Setting students up for career success is what gets Bennett Cole out of bed in the morning.
After decades in the private sector, Cole pivoted to higher education in 2023. He now serves as finance program director at WSB, where he’s leading the charge for a new model of career preparation at the school: one centered on more than 40 career pathways, including seven in finance.
His job mixes teaching, pathway development, and external relationship building with alumni and industry. It’s a three-pronged approach that gives students the knowledge, practical skills, and experiential learning opportunities to land their dream jobs.
WSB: How would you describe the pathways model?
Bennett Cole: I look at it as melding the academic and theoretical sides of business with an applied perspective. As part of WSB’s Career Forward initiative, we’re developing the infrastructure to focus students on what we refer to as “industry pathways” to better prepare them for their future careers.
When students arrive at WSB, we ask them to either declare a major within business or be “business exploring” and take a year to decide. We then want to expose students to the various pathways as early as possible and have them understand what these industries are, who the companies are that participate in them, how they compete and make money, and what opportunities exist for people entering these fields.
In finance, we’ve developed seven pathways, from corporate finance to investment banking and global markets. I work with three specialists to develop an overarching vision and strategy for each pathway that incorporates academics, experiential and applied learning, and relationship development.
“I’m really obsessed with getting students the education they need to understand what these industries are all about and helping them develop a very intentional roadmap to get there.”
—Bennett Cole
WSB: What are the benefits of this approach?
BC: The recruiting timelines in business, and especially finance, have accelerated dramatically. Let’s take investment banking as an example. You really need to know your freshman year that this is a road you want to go down.
With the pathways model, our hope is that students will be able to visualize their career path more quickly, build focus, and become much more mature, savvy job applicants when it comes time for recruiting.
I’m really obsessed with getting students the education they need to understand what these industries are all about and helping them develop a very intentional roadmap to get there.
WSB: Where do students go with questions?
BC: Our pathways specialists work side-by-side with the school’s career coaches. As part of the team, the career coaches help students with writing résumés, developing interview skills, and preparing them for the recruiting process. Pathways specialists, on the other hand, complement this work through their teaching, industry experience, and insights. They’re a great resource when students have very industry-specific questions, and we have a seamless handoff between career coaches and pathways specialists when students get to that level.
WSB: How are you bringing industry insights to students?
BC: We know students learn by osmosis. If you look at what peer institutions on the East Coast are doing, they’re bringing in dozens of financial companies every week to talk to students. Since we don’t have the same geographical advantage and proximity to financial hubs, I focus on how we can create a similar experience here in Wisconsin, and we’ve unleashed some programs that are phenomenal at leveling that playing field.
For example, we created podcast series for each pathway that are conversations with executives and recent graduates. These are probing dialogues about what students should be asking in job interviews, what daily life is like inside their organizations, and more macro-level topics. Not only do they serve as an immediate mechanism for student exploration, but they can also be revisited when preparing for interviews down the road.
We found that students in Finance 200—our required industry fundamentals course that introduces the seven pathways—were rapidly consuming these podcasts, and so we’re hard at work making more. Because at the end of the day, students can hear this information from a professor or a pathways specialist, but it’s different when they’re hearing it from peers or an executive at the company they’re interested in.