Am I Good Enough for M&A???

Hi all.

I graduated from a non-target university (i.e., business school is ranked about 50th in the country) with honors in June ’07. After an aggressive job search, I was hired as an analyst at a sector-focused hedge fund in September ’07. While the fund is only $300MM AUM and not based in NYC or Greenwich, the type of work involved is legit, IMHO. Duties include deriving long/short investment ideas via fundamental analysis, extensive modeling and other tasks that one would expect a research analyst to do. My track record is good (knock on wood) and I’ve quickly risen to a role commensurate with other analysts in the firm with more extensive backgrounds (e.g., IB and equity research).

While I’m not going to jump ship anytime soon, I’ve began considering my next career move so that I’m fully prepared when that time comes. Although I could likely secure a job at a larger hedge fund in my current sector, I’ve become cognizant of the limitations in regards to both alpha and compensation associated with a sector-defined strategy. Specifically, I’ve concluded that I’d like to work for an event-driven fund. The biggest challenge I face, however, is the fact that most respectable funds of this nature are looking for potential analysts with prior M&A or restructuring experience due to the obvious laterals involved. The question I have, then, is whether or not a move into IB would be feasible?

With the limited details provided, is it practical to think that someone with my background could make the jump to M&A / restructuring within Goldman, ML, Blackstone, Lazard, Greenhill, etc.? If so, given the fact that I graduated in 2007, when should I begin applying? While I’m certainly open to suggestions regarding the direction of my career, I’m more interested in knowing how feasible a move into IB is. I greatly appreciate all of the advice. Preparing to move into a new field is a time consuming process and I don't want to waste time doing the impossible.

Thanks in advance.