Isabelle Layding

University of Pittsburgh College of Business Administration

“Planner, Risk-Taker, Game-Player, Pun-Teller, List-Maker.”

Fun fact about yourself: I can tell the difference between Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, and Coke Zero.

Hometown: Clinton, NJ

High School: North Hunterdon High School

Majors: Economics & Supply Chain Management

Minor: Applied Statistics

Favorite Business Course: Operations Management, taught by Eric Paljug

Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:

Extracurriculars & Leadership:

Pittsburgh Management Consulting (Business Manager)
Phi Beta Lambda (Treasurer; 2023 Dinner for Dimes Lead; 2022 Dinner for Dimes Corporate Relations Chair)
Collegiate Panhellenic Association (Vice President of Finance; Greek Week Rep.)
Alpha Epsilon Phi (Vice President of Finance; Fundraising Chair; Scholarship Chair)
Greek Week (Logistics Chair)
Teaching Assistant, BUSACC 0040 – Managerial Accounting
Teaching Assistant, BUS 0020 – Your Career Success
Professional Development Consultant in Career Development Office
Consulting Field Projects, Engagement Manager – FedEx Ground
Consulting Field Projects, Engagement Manager – Westinghouse Electric Company
Pitt Business Diverse Leaders Summit (2025 Student Lead; 2024 Student Lead & Event Moderator; 2023 Table Discussion Moderator; 2022 Table Discussion Moderator)
2021 Haller Global Honors Fellow

Awards:

David C. Frederick Honors College Joint-Degree Program
College of Business Administration and Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences Dual-Bachelor’s Recipient
University of Pittsburgh Department of Economics – Departmental Honors
Dean’s List – All semesters
2nd Place – Katz Graduate School of Business & KPMG Cup
3rd Place – Dick’s Sporting Goods & Pitt Business Analytics National Case Competition
2024 Traffic Club of Pittsburgh Scholarship Recipient
2024 Pittsburgh Alumnae Panhellenic Scholarship Recipient

Where have you interned during your college career:

PwC, Business Process Consulting Intern | Chicago, IL
Whirlpool Corporation, Global Supply Chain Intern | Benton Harbor, MI

Where will you be working after graduation: I will be a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company, based in Pittsburgh, PA.

Who is your favorite business professor? My favorite business professor would have to be Blair Pomeroy. I’ve taken his Strategic Management and Fundamentals of Strategy Consulting courses, and I’m currently working with him on an engagement with the Westinghouse Electric Company through the Katz Graduate School of Business at Pitt. Blair is hilarious, sharp as a tack, and is so invested in the success of his students. I’ve really enjoyed the classes I’ve taken with him – he has a real gift of synthesizing insights from his career with the theoretical strategies we talk about class. He has been an invaluable mentor throughout my college career, and I am very grateful for that.

What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business? The importance of authenticity cannot be overstated. Learning to be myself and embrace my natural strengths has been a big point of focus throughout my time at Pitt. I think authenticity has been the key to a lot of my successes for two reasons: 1) It helped me to find a career path that naturally fits with my goals and personality; and 2) It has helped me form deep, meaningful relationships with the peers, professors, and mentors I’ve met along the way.

Careers make up a large part of our lives, so being genuine in my interests and sharing passions with those that we work with is important. I’ve found forming authentic relationships to be incredibly fulfilling. By creating that esprit-de-corps, the larger team works better when we all want to show up for each other and bring our best to the work we’re doing.

Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? I would sleep more… hear me out. I spent a lot of nights grinding until super late, when in reality, I knew that the quality of my work wasn’t as good. Don’t get me wrong – late nights are absolutely necessary sometimes, and we need to push through to get the work done. However, I wish I would have learned sooner that sometimes, I need to shut my laptop, get some rest, and come back to my work rested, refreshed, and remotivated to do my best.

What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What is one insight you gained from using AI? As a Teaching Assistant for the Your Career Success course in Pitt Business, I’ve helped teach students how to use AI to help write resumes and cover letters! Sometimes, it’s difficult to craft a resume from scratch, especially if you are newer to resume writing, so using AI to get a rough framework to start really helps a lot of students. To be honest, I don’t actually use a lot of AI in my schoolwork. Here’s one insight I’ve gotten from using it: if I’m thinking myself in circles, it’s a great way to get me out of tunnel vision and bring in new ideas to reset my thinking. It also can come up with some pretty funny puns!

Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? I am most proud of the work I’ve done through the Consulting Field Projects course through the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at Pitt. I’ve been an Engagement Manager for two projects with billion-dollar companies, which has been an incredible learning experience. Through my work with FedEx Ground, I was able to work with a group of MS students to find $4 Million of value for our clients, which was a pretty cool feeling as an undergraduate Junior. I’m currently working with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and I am very excited for the potential impact that this engagement will have on the future of nuclear energy internationally. These projects encouraged me to pursue a career in consulting after graduation, and I learned a great deal about managing teams, building client relationships, and delivering significant results in a short period of time.

My greatest personal achievement is learning to play the card game Bridge. It’s a very tactical game, and it’s taught me a great deal about strategizing with incomplete information. Most importantly, it’s a family pastime for me. Learning to play has brought me closer to many of my family members, even ones who are several generations older than me. I love sharing this part of my life with people, because playing cards has shaped a lot of who I am today.

Which classmate do you most admire? A classmate who stands out to me is Sophie Lu – she is my mentee in Phi Beta Lambda, and a fellow consulting aspirant. She is such an incredible leader and a thoughtful friend. She’s going to go very far. We prepared for case interviews together, and she always pushed me to be more creative with my solutions, tighter in my analysis, and challenged me to be the best that I could be. Consulting is an emerging career path at Pitt, and she has been an absolute trailblazer. She’ll be at BCG this summer and has been a tremendous help to me in my endeavors to foster interest in the consulting field for younger students. I am so excited to see what she accomplishes in her career, and I am truly honored to be her friend. Hopefully, we’ll be running into each other at the airport!

Who would you most want to thank for your success? I want to thank my parents (I can’t pick one of them!) — they exposed me to business at a young age and helped to nurture my passion for it. I look up to them so much; they inspire me to work hard, be grateful, and to pay my successes forward. They are generous, kind, and talented, and I hope to be like them, both personally and professionally. Throughout my life, they’ve always encouraged me to reach for the stars and be confident in myself, even if it’s the scary thing to do in the moment and it means jumping into the deep end – or even if it means I might fail. They give the best advice, and I am so thankful for them every day.

What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?

Work internationally / live in another country!
Own a small business, once I am retired – either a coffee shop or a cupcake bakery (or a combination of the two)!

What made Isabelle such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2025?

“Isabelle stands out. She is certainly intelligent, as evidenced by her achievements, but she has other attributes that elevate her above her peers, starting with perseverance. Isabelle consistently pushes through the self-doubts and uncertainties that often paralyze others. She seizes opportunities with remarkable determination and focus; she looks at ambiguity as a challenge, not a threat. She’s also playful – which may seem like an odd call-out, but she brings levity and personality to the work she does, while maintaining incredible focus and delivering quality results. I’ve seen this in both her classroom presence and in her performance on the Consulting Field Projects. It is the combination of killer competence and playfulness that is so rare. In my previous life as a Senior Partner with a global strategy house, I found prominent CEOs and world leaders would often combine enormously consequential work with light, even cheeky banter. Even though she might be a few years away from these types of encounters or roles (maybe not too many…), this yin and yang combination will serve her on the journey and take her very far.

Some students have so much presence, the school feels different when they leave – a bit less special. I’m preparing myself for that feeling come May 2025 when Isabelle graduates.”

Blair Pomeroy
Clinical Assistant Professor, Katz Graduate School of Business

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