Looking to go into banking from HF - would appreciate any mentorship.

I've been doing arb at a hedge fund and highly structured capital markets trades for the last two years with some very light fundamental work on some high yield credit names for the last ~6 months. I'm generally considering moving into banking because I think it would build a foundational skillset, and most of my fundamental analysis skills are self-taught and I have a lot of difficulty benchmarking myself because all of my peers at work are VPs/Principals with wizard-level knowledge than blows me the fuck out of the water. I found one role at a BB that seemed to be for people from non-finance backgrounds that was an associate role in IB, which I applied for and am vigorously networking for, but I was wondering if it was common for one to be able to lateral from a hedge fund to a bank. My long term goal is to go into UMM/Buyout PE to make enough money and then go do a niche roll-up strategy in REPE (but need that PE comp first, my understanding is its higher). I'm leaving my job as my 2-year analyst program is over and am slightly concerned that I'm going to be stuck without a job. I'm interviewing with some specialty finance shops that are ok but I'm worried that comp is going to be capped and I also don't want to pigeonhole myself.

I apologize for the desperation, but I would appreciate some advice and mentorship here - I feel a bit lost here and I'm worried my background has closed some doors for me. For what its worth, I'd be happy to share some RE-related investment ideas (via pm) as a paltry form of compensation for some advice (not sure this is worth anything but I think they're kind of interesting). At this point, I've already busted my ass and grinded for the last two years and I'm happy to keep doing it, I just don't want the light at the end of the tunnel to fade to black. My parents are immigrants and worked hard so I could get a great education at a prestigious school and be happy, and I know sometimes they're worried that I seem upset. More than anything, more than how much I want to outcompete my peers and be at the front of the pack, I just want to truly make my parents proud, like, knock-it-out-of-the-park-proud. The drive behind my ambitions is mainly just a way to express gratitude to my parents. And I want to do it while they're still around.

That's all y'all - I know its a bit senti but sometimes you gotta just let it out and do full stream of consciousness.