Career Advice: Impact IB to Fund Manager

Hi everyone,

Was hoping to get some insight from people on here about what they think I should do in order to reach my goal of eventually creating and managing my own fund focused on development (tech, healthcare, education, energy) in East Africa by my 30s or 40s. Relatively new to the finance world but know my interests are at the intersection of international development and finance. Bit of background on me:

• Graduating from top target (Yale/Princeton/Harvard)

• Joining an impact investment bank as analyst in August. Small team spread out across NYC, DC, London, and Amsterdam. Will be the 3rd Analyst they’ve hired in past couple of years (other 2 went to Stanford and JHU, have worked in consulting and development finance at gov institutions like USAID and World Bank). Love the team and the deals they’ve worked on seem very interesting.

• worked as an SA at a BB in NYC last summer

• Planning on working for 2-3 yrs then applying to MBA (HBS/GSB/Booth/Wharton)

I could’ve taken a more traditional route (NYC BB doing IB or AM) but felt like I wanted a more direct chance to be involved in deals that are centered around impact. It’s important to me to feel that my work is making a positive change, which is why I fell in love with the position despite lower starting salary. Curious as to what you all think I should focus on in my first couple of years on the job and post MBA to achieve my goal of running a successful impact fund.