Too late to the game?

I have worked as an analyst at Big4 Corporate Finance (M&A) for about a year now and I’m soon finishing my Master of Science (Finance) studies. My work is much appreciated, and I have enjoyed working on M&A deals at Big4, but I’d like to get into a more challenging environment. I’m interested in working in IB at one of the BBs or boutiques and would like to hear more about the options for someone without IB experience prior to graduation.

My background

• Worked and studied in the Nordics
• Completed my bachelor’s in two years with excellent grades, but didn’t realize it would’ve been wiser to get some experience and internships instead of grinding courses like a maniac
• I didn’t know much about investment banking during my bachelor’s studies, but I wanted to pursue a career in finance, so I applied to a better school within my region to study a master’s degree in finance. Little did I know, I should’ve applied to a target school abroad; however, lots of alumni from my university get recruited to investment banks
• Did an internship at a Big4 Corporate Finance after one year of master’s studies and decided to stay as a full-time analyst
• I have some master’s studies left and will graduate next spring, and now I’m looking for ways to break into IB. I have visited some BBs in London and networked with a few bankers, but I would prefer contacting them after I know more about my options

I know that the typical path to break into IB is to get a full-time offer during an internship. I believe that doing an internship isn’t an option for me anymore, as I will graduate next spring, and most banks require that you have at least one year of studies left after the completion of the internship.

I’m not too familiar with graduate programmes and new analyst / associate programmes, but I know that I basically have two options:

1. Apply as an analyst before graduation (and start working after graduation)
2. Continue working at Big4 after graduation and apply as an associate after a year or two

To my understanding, it would be better to try to break into IB early on; thus, I believe option 1) would be preferable. I don’t know how extremely difficult these two options are compared to the “typical path”. Third option would be to do an MBA, but this may not make sense considering that I soon have a master’s degree and I’m already 25 years old.

What are your thoughts? Any advice is greatly appreciated.