MBA to EM Infra Investing?

I’m a T15 MBA student with a US military officer background and no prior finance experience I’m looking for guidance on how to reach my long term of infrastructure investing in emerging markets, particularly power/renewables, transportation and logistics, and digital infrastructure.

I understand that direct recruiting for traditional large-cap PE investment teams is highly unlikely without pre-MBA banking or investing experience. I’m more interested in specialist EM infrastructure funds or developer-investors such as Helios, CrossBoundary and A.P. Moller Capital. The impact and experience matter more to me than near-term compensation.

I’m evaluating two post-MBA routes:

1. Recruit for a specialist EM infrastructure fund or developer-investor.
2. Recruit for investment banking groups covering PU&I or industrials and attempt to move into principal investing after 2–3 years.

Most articles on IB-to-PE recruiting focus on analysts entering traditional buyout funds. I’m trying to determine how different the market is for Associates and MBAs entering smaller infrastructure and emerging-markets platforms.

Questions for anyone with experience:

• Are any smaller infrastructure firms receptive to nontraditional candidates directly out of MBA?
• Would 2 years as a post-MBA IB Associate open doors to larger infra firms like Actis and I Squared, or primarily improve my odds with the smaller funds?
• Does post-MBA IB Associate experience translate to underwriting and investment-team positions, or primarily into portfolio operations or corporate roles?
• Are smaller developer-investors materially more accessible than conventional infrastructure PE, or do they require similar transaction experience?
• Which banking groups provide the strongest preparation for EM infra investing: 1. PU&I, 2. Industrials with a Transportation & Logistics focus, 3. Metals & Mining, or 4. Project Finance?
• Any tips for networking with EM PE firms? Cold Linkedin outreach has been unproductive so far.

Thank you for any help.