Sheikha Al-Otaibi ’25 Wants to Talk to You
Sheikha Al-Otaibi ’25 has a passion for something that makes most people clam up immediately: She loves cold-calling people. The art of the pitch, getting to know people, that moment when you’ve won them over—it’s an animating force in her life.
“If you ask me to talk, I am going to talk,” Al-Otaibi says. “I love to talk.”
While a natural conversationalist, Al-Otaibi didn’t think about how she could turn this gift into a profession. Al-Otaibi, a first-generation student, originally came to Babson hoping to pursue a career in the fashion industry. Through networking, she landed internships in fashion marketing and supply chain.
By the summer after her second year, she was interning at a fashion powerhouse, Jimmy Choo. She was suddenly confronted with the idea that the dream she always wanted was maybe not her destiny.
COMMENCEMENT 2025: Learn more about Babson’s Commencement ceremonies May 17.
“I was quite shocked. I thought, ‘I don’t know if this is for me,’ ” Al-Otaibi says. “I got to experience my dream, and I realized that world may not fit my personality. It was more head down in a spreadsheet than expected.”
Like all good salespeople, she pivoted.
Around the same time, she went to a networking event with a friend, Sebastian Paredes ’23, who was starting a staffing business. She ended up scoring this new venture one of its first clients, as she says, “by just talking to them.” Realizing there was a common theme between what she’s good at and what was bringing her joy professionally, she decided to take on a role in this business. A new dream took shape that summer.
Before she graduates, there is one more conversation on her call list. Al-Otaibi will bring her story to the stage as the Class of 2025 undergraduate student Commencement speaker.
Discovering That New Spark
That fateful business is Interlix Staffing; its mission is to help businesses find remote, professional talent in Latin America. As a co-founder, it landed Al-Otaibi in Forbes magazine in 2024, a moment she calls her proudest.
After graduation, along with continuing to grow Interlix, she will take part in the Summer Venture Program and will later move to New York City. Al-Otaibi is also a content creator on LinkedIn, where she posts videos about her work as a female founder and her advice to other women in the industry. (She will even post videos cold-calling potential Interlix clients.) She hopes to parlay this personal brand into a career giving business advice on a larger scale.
“Looking back, I was good at something—it’s talking to people. It’s getting to know people. I want to understand what motivates them and who they are as a person.” Sheikha Al-Otaibi ’25
Joining Interlix made Al-Otaibi reflect on her childhood. Al-Otaibi was born in Boston and lived briefly in Saudi Arabia as a child, ultimately spending most of her childhood in Southern New Jersey with her grandmother and little sister. To make money, Al-Otaibi sold paper flowers outside local businesses as a child. She remembers the mechanic who paid $20 for one flower and the car salesman outside Home Depot who told 10-year-old Al-Otaibi she had a knack for sales.
Growing up, Al-Otaibi considered herself a hard worker but felt like she wasn’t naturally taking to anything. When she considered a career shift, those paper flowers sprung to mind.
“I realized I was always searching for my thing. I thought it was fashion,” she says. “Looking back, I was good at something—it’s talking to people. It’s getting to know people. I want to understand what motivates them and who they are as a person.”
Finding a Home in the Babson World
It’s fitting that two days before she was set to move into her first-year residence hall, she applied for a campus job at the Babson Phonathon for Alumni Relations, where she has worked her entire time at Babson. It was another chance to hone her sales craft. She was, of course, a natural on the phone, and loved the opportunity to talk to Babson alumni.
Because of her New England roots, Al-Otaibi says coming to Babson “felt like home.” She attends Babson as a scholar in the Green Leadership Program, and she considers the scholarship’s namesake, Professor Len Green, a mentor. She took his class, the Ultimate Entrepreneurial Challenge, and later was a teaching assistant for it.
Reflecting on her time at Babson, she expresses gratitude for the support system she has built. The scholarship she received. The professors, her friends, her colleagues at the Phonathon, the alumni she connected with.
Ultimately, it’s the entire global community that she credits most for helping grow her confidence. It’s fitting that the Babson Globe, which is surrounded by the flags of the world in Kerry Murphy Healey Park, is her favorite place on campus.
“Coming to Babson, I realized I am proud of my name. I like being half-Saudi Arabian, half-American,” Al-Otaibi says. “I am proud of my story; I don’t want to hide it.”
As she prepares to the take the stage at Commencement as speaker and as a graduate, that pesky Jimmy Choo internship is still top of mind. While the fashion career wasn’t meant to be, Al-Otaibi has no regrets, as it taught her the value of being true to herself.
“I got to do my dream job because of Babson and what I’ve learned here. I wouldn’t have had any of these opportunities, including to work in the fashion industry with no connections,” she says. “As a first-gen student, it was a dream you only see in the movies. Now that I’m graduating, I feel so confident in what I’m doing.”
All she had to do was sell herself.
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