Career Advice - Student

Hi everybody,

So I've been a lurker on WSO for some time and you guys have helped a lot with understanding the route to a finance/capital markets career.

I thought maybe this would be a good place to ask for advice in terms of the predicament I am in.

So I have finished a diploma program in Business Administration, and I am getting my Finance degree now, I am currently a 3rd year student. I will be starting my third year in September 2018. I currently work in Insurance and it's a good part time job to help pay my bills. My end goal is to get in somewhere in the buy side, preferably portfolio management. I also want to do my CFA L1, once I enter fourth year.

Now here comes the predicament. I have been trying to get entry level experience in finance/investing for quite some time and I recently had an interview with a top bank for a entry level investing representative position. They said I'm a perfect fit and perfectly qualified, so I am confident that in the next round of interviews out of all the other candidates I met, the probability that they offer me a position is highly likely. I have also spoken to the senior managers and networked with the head of departments for the position.

I told them I will be returning to school in September, and they said my availability needs to be flexible as in high demand times I need to available for shifts. I told them I can work any hours outside of my class schedule, but to even set that up would be very challenging (the manager of the department told me that).

So they suggested I take a year off and just work. But the problem is, I am trying to finish my third year so I can go for my CFA L1 . If I take time off, the trade off is a nice paying job where I can save a good amount of cash over prolonging my education to ultimately achieve higher level corporate roles.

At the same time, my boss at my Insurance job told me he can offer a higher position slightly less pay than the investing job in September, with the ability to choose my hours. I did not tell my boss about this investing gig, I just compared salaries and hourly rates.

This is where I'm stuck, should I take time off of school and prolong my education(getting B.comm - finance, and cfa l1) for a competitive job in client services investing department or stick with my insurance job and finish my education on time, possibly get the higher paying insurance job while in school.

I understand, I can only decide for myself here, but I would love to hear your thoughts because you guys are more experienced and have a better understanding finance/investing careers.