Am I Stuck? Advice needed

Hi all, I’m new to WSO, well I’ve been reading for almost a month now and this is my first post. I can’t tell how much I’m inspired by the WSO community’s willingness to help and all the constructive comments I’ve seen here. Today, I would like to ask for some suggestion/help from the community and share my currently fked up situation.

I attended a non-target college in NYC. I started as Actuarial Science/Math Major because I am pretty confident with the subject and yeah I’m Asian. Fast forward to my Junior year, I decided to change my major to Finance because I thought it would be a good idea to hedge my bet in case I couldn’t pass the Actuarial Science Exams and to expand my career options. At that point, my mind was still set to be an actuary and finance was just a plan B. So for my last two years in school, I spent most of my time studying for Actuarial exams and never try to network, thinking that if I passed these exams I will get my golden ticket to a secure job with a low 6 figures salary and decent work/life balance.

So by the time I graduate in 2014, I got a 3.9 GPA, a finance degree from non target. Passed two actuarial exams. But also have almost zero experience, other than a short intern stint at a Midtown PWM Firm, which I basically do nothing for the entire summer. And I have no full time offer. It was a huge mistake on my part and I only have myself to blame because I was delusional and drank the kool aid on academic meritocracy. And I’m foolish enough to think that I’m above networking… I wish TARDIS was real… So with no FT offer and a student debt to pay, I made a half assed effort to apply for BB/IBD without knowing how the recruiting process even works. Tried applying to actuarial jobs but no luck either. After a few months with no result, I settled to work at a non-finance related role, mostly operational/ BO work. I made a promise to myself before I took the offer, that I will quit that job in 3 months and find something better. And fast forward one year to now, I am still at the same company and I’m writing this in front of my office desk.

It was about a month ago when I joined WSO that I finally accepted the reality, that I was lazy and screwed up. I also learned a lot about the banking industry and realized how little I knew back then, and even now I don’t know much about banking and finance outside of textbook and formulas. I felt like I took the red pill, snapped back to reality and here I am, almost 25 now, 2 years out of college and have zero real finance experience. But thanks to WSO, I have a better idea of what kind of career I am looking for. My ultimate goal is to work for a buyside HF like many people here, IBD>MBA>PE/HF or ER>MBA>HF . But at this moment, I felt kind of stuck. I am not sure how to start networking from scratch, that I’m 2 years out of school. Is it too late for me? I guess I’m going through a quarter life crisis… http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/yes-you-are…