Career move to ER - What more should I be doing?

Hello Everyone,

I have been in the financial industry for almost two years now working middle office roles for two BBs, and recently decided that I will try to make the move into research. Unfortunately I never gave it much thought in college and was more interested in making a career out of weightlifting, but my intentions changed after my 3rd year. The main reasons are that I want a career that’s mentally challenging, and love the idea of breaking down all components of a company and valuing it.

These are some of the things I’ve done and have recently started doing to move toward the mission:

• Compiling a spreadsheet of all opportunities online, and ideally a contact linked to it.

• Emailing Senior Analysts, MDs, and Recruiters about potential opportunities, and getting to know them better.

• Periodically applying to jobs directly via indeed, Linkedln, and on firm websites.

• Almost completed building a DCF/Comps Model for a company I’m interested in.

• Went back to school to take some classes related to data analysis (Linear Algebra) and self teaching Python (I don’t know if this helps much but just personal interest I guess)

• Completed the Third CFA Exam last June

Is there anything not listed here that I absolutely should be doing? Or anything I should change? I want to make sure I’m not bullshitting myself in any way, and make sure I’m doing the right things.

Perhaps I should be focused on a specific sector of interest, but I haven’t really found that niche/would take an opportunity of any sector in a heartbeat.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. God bless