The MBA experience at MIT Sloan stands out for its distinct culture of exploration and collaboration, surrounded by an ecosystem designed to support transformative growth. In this series, MBA Career Peers share insights from their recruiting experiences to help others navigate the journey.
MBA Career Peer Isabel Ortega Laya (MBA ’26) came to MIT Sloan to explore new paths in finance where she could drive measurable impact. Isabel shares her strategic approach to recruiting for the private markets and how conversations with her CDO career advisor and network helped her land an internship that combined her interests in private equity, technical investing, and social impact.
Tell us about your internship recruiting journey. How did you choose your path?
I primarily recruited for roles in finance, with a focus on private markets. While I was interested in investing roles, I was not exclusively targeting those positions given that I did not come from an investment banking or private equity background. Prior to Sloan, I was a Relationship Manager at BlackRock covering international financial advisors, focused on fundraising and investor relations.
For my internship, I joined Tower Peak Partners (TPP) on the deal team, where I worked on fund strategy, due diligence, financial modeling and valuations, investment memos, and competitive landscape analysis. I chose this path because TPP sat at the intersection of my core interests: private equity, deeper technical investing experience, and social impact – an opportunity to sharpen my technical skills while driving measurable impact.
How did you find the internship that you ultimately accepted and what was your recruiting timeline?
I found my internship through LinkedIn, but applied directly via the Tower Peak Partners website in early March. I had been exploring private markets roles for several months, so my profile, resume, and job alerts were highly tailored to that space. I worked with an MBA advisor to refine my resume from an investor’s perspective, prioritizing relevant experience and removing content less aligned with private equity. Having used a similar resume for years, that outside perspective was critical in re-evaluating what actually matters for PE roles and sharpening a clear, targeted candidate narrative. I interviewed throughout April and received an offer at month-end.
What were the 2-3 most important action steps that helped you succeed in recruiting for this industry?
First, I made sure I really understood the industry. That meant more than knowing what private equity is – it meant understanding what a specific firm actually does, how it generates returns, where it sits in the broader ecosystem, its AUM, growth stage, portfolio construction, and competitors. Being able to speak to those pieces confidently made conversations much more substantive.
Second, I got very clear on the profile they were hiring for. I studied the job description closely and looked at the backgrounds of everyone on the team, from partners to associates, to understand patterns. That helped me craft a narrative that bridged my past experience with what they needed.
Finally, I was intentional about telling a cohesive “impact + investing” story – articulating why the mission mattered to me while also demonstrating technical fluency. I aimed to show both purpose and rigor, and positioned myself as someone excited to help the firm scale and grow (appreciating the ambition of TPP to grow into a large, competitive PE in the next few years).
How did you approach networking for this industry?
Because I hadn’t worked in private equity before, I was very intentional about building my baseline knowledge through conversations. I spoke with several classmates who had pre-MBA PE or IB experience to understand how deal teams operate day-to-day and what skills actually matter on the job. I was also fortunate to have family members in finance who generously spent time walking me through the mechanics of GPs vs. LPs, fund structures, investment committees, and common challenges firms face.
I treated these conversations less as transactional networking and more as mini-learning sessions. Over time, that helped me build fluency in how investors think and speak, which made interviews feel much more natural and allowed me to engage in more thoughtful, informed discussions.
What resources were most valuable for your search?
The CDO was incredibly helpful throughout my process. I met multiple times with my MBA Career Advisor to refine my narrative, think through how to position my non-traditional background for a deal team role, and pressure-test my interview answers. Those sessions helped me articulate my value clearly and gave me a noticeable boost in confidence going into interviews, rather than feeling insecure for not having a traditional background.
I also took advantage of Wall Street Prep modeling trainings available through MIT Sloan to strengthen my technical foundation. Having structured practice in valuation and modeling made me much more comfortable in technical conversations.
When I received my offer, I connected with CDO’s MBA Career Advisors to understand how the compensation compared to other Sloanies’ internship salary data. That gave me a grounded, data-backed approach to negotiating.
What was your secret to success, or alternatively, what’s one thing you wish you’d known or done differently during the recruiting process?
My biggest “secret” was truly owning my value. Recruiting is one of the few times where you have to confidently advocate for yourself. I didn’t have a traditional IB/PE background, but I focused on what I uniquely brought to the table and made sure that came through clearly. You have to be your own biggest champion and the way to do that confidently is to put in the work to know how to convey your skillset and the value you bring.
If I could do something differently, I would have cast a wider net earlier within impact investing. Many growth-stage impact PE firms are small and don’t run formal internship processes – often, a thoughtful outreach email from an MIT Sloan MBA can go further than you think.
