MSOR vs CFA

Hi everyone,
Im looking for advice/suggestions on how to move my career forward. Im a recent grad (class of 17') and I am in a role as a contingent worker in operations support at bridgewater associates. This means I am not a BW employee, but I work on site using BW systems interacting with BW employees(middle office, TA's, traders) etc. We mainly support the trading desk and account mgmt desks.

I am focused on getting into a front office role as an analyst/investment associate in AM, a HF or PE. Originally I interned at a PE firm and thought that I'd want a career as a business analyst, but I thought my current role would give me great exposure to the HF industry and the technology/systems used to manage.

Right now, I am unsure of what my next step should be to make this happen. The consultancy company I work for isn't interested in assisting me to obtain a graduate degree, so I feel like my only option to boost my resume while working right now is to go for the cfa exams. I am hesitant however seeing as though I wont be able to receive the title without 4 yrs experience in an analyst type role, and I dont know if it would be more worthwhile to just focus on GRE/GMAT and take on grad school debt and get a good degree that will hopefully get me the job i want. I'm very interested in the MS in Operations Research degree at Columbia and I think this would be a good option for grad school right now since I don't have the work experience to get into a top MBA program.

So, is the CFA worth my time? (2-3 yrs to finish lvl 1-3) or should I shift my energy elsewhere? (find different position, grad school)

All and any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

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