Thoughts on next steps with the goal of ending in Investment banking.

Hi all,

I'm having trouble discerning what path I want to try and take to Wall Street and was hoping for some input. 

A little about me: I graduated 2022 summa cum laude (3.97) from a good school, but a non-target school with majors in Finance and International Business. I didn't land anything in IB in the initial recruiting cycle. Still, I did an equity research internship at an upper-middle market bank, and my job now is as a TAS consultant at one of the big accounting firms. I've been here for about a year. I have received rapid positive recognition and invites to several national teams, which, from what I can tell, outpaces my peers but still keeps me on the 2-year to senior associate track. 

My two desires in the future are to advance my education with a graduate degree and to spend time on Wall Street, ideally as an investment banker,  which has been my dream since the beginning. I have three avenues I have been debating with myself.

1. Make the jump from TAS straight to investment banking as a first-year associate. 

• I've networked with several folks who have done the jump, showing it is possible. It might not be easy, but I am willing to sacrifice a year and enter as a first-year associate. The issues I see here are I did not go to an elite school, and my company now is good, not great, making it hard to show I can be one of the best associates in the room. Along with the fact I am slightly older now and might not fit the ideal timeline of a bank.

2. Get my MBA abroad, then enter as a post-MBA associate.

• With my study abroad being robbed, I've decided if I do my MBA, I want to do it abroad. The top schools I've looked at are the London Business School, the London School of Economics, and Oxford. (for reference, I speak English, Spanish, and Mandarin - if I needed to learn French or something, I could do it).

3. Get my JD in the US.

• One thing that's always complimented my passion for finance is my interest in law. I view this as an opportunity to take a completely non-traditional approach. The TAS provides an excellent background in accounting, working with clients, and understanding the M&A process from LOI to QoE to close. Ideally, I would attend a top 15 law school with a top 10/15 business law program.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated! Hopefully, this can help me figure things out, as well as anyone else with similar questions.

Thank you all!