Jessica Yang

IE Business School

“My neighbors think it’s amusing that a Chinese-American is enthusiastically chatting with them in Spanish.”

Hometown: East Brunswick, New Jersey (United States)

Fun Fact About Yourself: I absolutely love theater and performing arts, and I won the Hamilton lottery with the original Broadway cast through a risky origami maneuver. Back then, the lottery was still done in person. I folded my paper ballot into a tiny paper airplane. It was risky because the airplane was a lot smaller than all the other pieces of paper, but it still ended up getting picked!

Undergraduate School and Major: Bachelor of Science in Business; New York University

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Private Equity Associate at WCAS

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Throughout my time as a banker and as an investor, I’ve mentored a lot of students trying to break into finance, both formally and informally. For me, my biggest career accomplishment so far has been building these relationships with my mentees and watching them succeed. Mentorship is also a great way for me to promote issues I care about, including improving gender and cultural diversity in the finance industry. When I first started out in my career, only ~20% of the analysts at my level were female. Over the past few years, the industry has been improving quite rapidly and I am excited to be part of that movement through mentoring others.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? Open-mindedness. It’s a lot of fun when most of your classmates have lived and worked in different countries and across various cultures. During a friend’s birthday celebration, we sang the “Happy Birthday” song in seven different languages! My classmates are also incredibly generous and excited to show off their cultures and experiences. We’ve had numerous “country dinners,” where we tried traditional foods and played games hosted by students from that culture. It’s also fun to know that almost everywhere you travel, you’ll get great recommendations from classmates who have lived there before!

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The unique lab period and the customizability of the IE MBA was extremely interesting to me. I knew I wanted to take this year to explore a few different topics that I previously didn’t have a lot of time for while I was working. I love the fact that I can spend five weeks in South Africa focusing on a social impact project, and then come back to IE in Madrid and focus on startups and entrepreneurship. A few of my classmates are also traveling for extended internships or exchange programs during their MBA year. It’s great that as a student at IE Business School, you can focus on the topics that are most interesting to you while also learning from the unique experiences of your classmates.

IE Business School calls itself “An “MBA out of the ordinary.” How has IE’s curriculum and activities been out of the ordinary from what you expected or what you experienced in other educational institutions?

The opportunities to travel with IE so far has been most out of the ordinary for me. Many of the clubs organize treks to different countries across Europe, where students can participate in structured educational events in other cities. Recruiting events also happen across Europe, and there are many opportunities to explore different European markets. I also participated in a case competition that ultimately took me to Vilnius, Lithuania for the final round. I’m also looking forward to the Social Impact Lab in Johannesburg.

Additionally, I love the entrepreneurship courses as part of the core curriculum. As a former investor, it has been very interesting to see the mindset, steps, considerations, and stakes necessary to build a venture from the ground up. It’s refreshing to see everything through the eyes of a founder.

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? “What do you wish the application had asked you?” Usually, potential candidates try to portray the best of themselves within a given set of questions. However, this question asked me to both clarify my values in terms of what I wished to be assessed on and to demonstrate creativity in displaying another side of me that I felt was excluded in the previous questions. Lots of food for thought!

What do you see yourself doing in ten years? I’m very open-minded! I really enjoyed meeting founders and seeing a wide range of business models as an investor. I am looking forward to a career that allows me to build new relationships, keep learning about new businesses, and connect diverse people towards a common goal, whether that means continuing a career as an investor or building up an early-stage venture from within.