First off, I'm in Canada and specifically out west so Toronto is usually tricky to break into unless I can really leverage my background. Same with the USA but I'm open to applying anywhere.
I have 2 years O&G Experience for a Pipeline company doing cost tracking/projection reports for the Project Managers. 1.5 Year of Commercial Banking Experience (30% O&G Service Companies).
Ideally, a Corporate Banking Jr Associate/Analyst role in Calgary is probably my target but most of the Corporate banking teams in Calgary are ultra light. I can't just wait around forever.
I don't even know if Corporate Banking is my end-goal, I just know I need to get some High Finance background before I'm too old and will never be able to advance my career anymore (I'm 28). Even in the Commercial Banking side of things it seems like ex-ibankers and people with previous high finance jobs get the fun/interesting Commercial Banking jobs after they decide 80-100 hours a week isn't for them.
After dealing with business owners at the lower end of commercial lending ($1-$5MM), I would love an analyst role to change things up. I had a 3.7 GPA in finance courses (literally took all of them) at the UofA but only 3.4 CGPA, I passed all 3 levels of the CFA exams on my first try and am currently writing both FRM exams in May. I have Excel VBA background from my Pipeline job where I wrote the excel templates the company uses. I'm just dying to get a shot to use some of my education because I find it fun.
I'm looking for advice on what kinds of jobs I could potentially be looking for maybe not even at a bank. The only jobs I can think of at a bank I'd be into are Corporate Banking Analyst or Investment Banking Analyst. The former is a rare position to find, the latter I'm too old for and probably still not even competitive for. Is there maybe another career path route I could look at to try and break into something more exciting than what I'm dong now? Something where some advanced financial analysis and problem solving would be an asset? Preferably something team-based too where I've got some peers I can work with, talk to about ideas, discuss some financial stuff and grab a beer after work talking about how we finally did that deal or something. I know this is vague but I'd honestly be interested in anything that challenged my intelligence, challenged my financial knowledge forcing me to learn new things and where I felt like my contribution was making an impact on the team and where I had people relying on me (I find a do best under this sort of pressure). Any advice? Thanks.
