MO at HF or FO at PB? Goal is FO HF....

To all the more senior primates -

Me:

Former sell side trader (few years) who took time away (>1yr)
The reason I took off is very personal, and that definitely comes through and is understood during interviews -but the reality is that I have been away from a seat.
Limited desire to go back to the sell side. With all the regs and downsizing, not even sure if it's possible as a lot of the push back is that I don't have this.specific.minute.experience in forward banana yield trading so they can't offer me the job.
Realistic that getting a junior analyst position at a HF is highly improbable at this stage, but it is my ideal position right now
Very limited desire to apply to business school (seems like a total waste of time and money)
CFA is far, far away and also from reading, seems to be a waste of time but that's neither here nor there
The end goal is to be a PM/HF Mgr (Value, Long Only, Activist seem to be the style I gravitate toward, but Macro is not a stretch)
Jobs I'm currently looking at are MO (ops, IR..) at small HFs, sales/structuring products/idea generation for HNW, trader at micro BD who take 0 risk...

It's too early to tell on any of these, but if you had to push for one, or would hire an analyst from one of these roles, which one seems the most appealing?