Advice needed: Career prospects after start in Treasury w/ non-traditional background

Hi all,

First of all, this forum has been really helpful to me when applying to various positions to get a sense of the different types of roles out there and what the job is "really" like. It seems that in school students know nothing about what is actually needed for different roles and what skills are learned, it is all about working for the most prestigious institution.. which doesn't seem like the best path to a fulfilling career unless all you want to do is brag.

Anyway to the point: After graduating LSE in a non-quant but economics-related master, I found a job in a large financial services firm as a Treasury Analyst. Since treasury work really depends on the industry/firm, to be more specific, the job entails 20-30% reporting and management of credit lines / pledging receivables, 10-20% securitizing receivables on the ABS market, and the rest being ad-hoc analysis ranging from structuring new lines of credit (we are a big lending firm), looking at potential small-scale buyouts/VC investments, or getting funding for our portfolio companies. All in all pretty diverse, with a very entrepreneurial culture. Also the hours are amazing (I work in Los Angeles).

Although I like it here so far, I am wondering if these skills would ever be transferable to buy-side firms. I interned at a family office doing due diligence on PE investments and playing around with multi-asset portfolios a little, and really enjoyed it. However due to my lack of MBA or CFA, I fear future employers may not take me seriously. Is the MBA path unavoidable or should I continue to dig my teeth in at this firm and look to move over to the buy side at some point? I have been here for around 10 months and am thinking about what I would need to do in the future to cross that buy-side line.

Thanks a lot for any advice or experience.