Advice needed: UK regional Big 4 Audit, London-based commercial credit brokerage, or something else?

TL;DR: Want to (eventually) do PE. Choice of UK regional Big Four Audit, compliance/sales stuff for boutique commercial credit brokerage, Big Four M&A type stuff in London (been "talent pooled", may not come off), or sack it off and go travelling for a year and try again in 2016/17? What would you do in my position?

Hi all, long-time lurker, first post.

I'm looking for a spot of advice. I'm currently a final-year Philosophy undergrad at a fairly decent (Russell Group) university in London. I came into the whole "hey, turns out I want to do finance" thing relatively late in the day, having mucked about working in politics during my summers, and holding down a retail job at the weekends.

After having spoken to friends and alumni about it, I've set myself on getting a career in Private Equity (hey, I like a challenge). Now my first thought had been to take the classic IBD/ECM/LevFin -> MBA -> PE route, but given my relative lack of finance experience (no finance internships at all, not even a spring week- as I said, I came to this a little too late), I failed to get a spot on any banking grad schemes. Fair enough, it was a long shot, I lost nothing by applying.

What I did manage to do was get interviews with some Big 4 firms for a couple of roles, some in corporate finance/Deals/TAS (my first choice, given my ultimate goal of PE), others in External Audit (less enthusiastic, but I'll get an ACA out of it and there's the possibility of making a lateral move to TAS or Consulting). I also got to an assessment day for Audit with a smaller London firm, only to be told that they'd filled all their slots and all they have left is Internal Audit (definitely not keen on that, but willing to listen to counsel- my gut instinct is that IA will not get me where I want to go).

So far, I'm looking at Big Four Financial Services EA in the regions (Bristol), Top 10 IA in London (though I may be able to defer that to next year and stay on the EA track), and I've been put in a "talent pool" by one firm for TAS- from what I understand, this means they filled all their slots, but they're holding me just in case someone drops out. I got pooled before my first round, so even if I do get the nod, I've still got a long process to get through before I even get an offer.

To further complicate things, I've also just taken on a part-time role doing compliance-y grunt work for a small loan brokerage, and there's the possibility to take on more of a sales role later on. My feeling again is that it won't get me where I need to be, but it's at least more financial than the previous work I've done, and the pay works pretty well while I'm still a student. I think I could turn it into a full-time role, but my question is whether I really want to.

Last option is to sack it off for a year and re-apply next year. I've been told by my retail job that I can stay on for as long as I need, and it might give me an opportunity to broaden my CV. I know from a Big Four contact that there's the possibility of doing contracting work for his TAS team on a six-month fixed-term basis, might that be the answer?

So, monkeys, what would you do given my circumstances and goals? I've got fairly solid academics, and should graduate with a decent 2:1 (couldn't tell you what that translates to in GPA terms). All advice gratefully received.

Cheers