Chemical engineering student + ML background + investing experience, trying to figure out where I fit career-wise. Looking for advice.

I'm currently in my junior year at a top Indian engineering school studying chemical engineering. My GPA is shit, which is why I'm trying to think carefully about career direction before final year recruiting starts.

What I do have:

• I'm a self taught investor since I was 15, I manage a sizeable chunk of assets (about 20 times the per capita gdp of India) and I earned most of it doing freelance work in college. Over time I learnt portfolio construction, fundamental investing, and derivatives, and spend a significant amount of time studying markets independently.
   
• I worked in data science and machine learning roles at startups and also did some research in college.
• I tried to apply for quantitative roles for the summer, but was rejected mostly on:
  - no visa sponsorship
  - low gpa
   
• So this summer I'll be interning at a large O&G company. Mainly taking it as a chance to understand how large industrial businesses operate and to get exposure outside pure software/ML work.

Right now I'm trying to narrow down where I should focus during my final year and early career.

The areas I naturally gravitate toward are things involving:

• analytical/problem-solving work
• technology
• industrial businesses
• markets/investing
• quantitative thinking
• strategy/capital allocation

But I'm still genuinely undecided on what the best path is.

A few questions for people further along in their careers:

• Does a low GPA from a decent engineering school materially limit optionality long term, or can strong work/projects compensate?
• For someone with a technical background plus interest in markets/business, what career paths are actually worth exploring?
• Is CFA L1 worth doing during college if you're still unsure between technical, finance, or business-oriented roles?
• For people who started out unsure of direction in college — what ended up mattering most in figuring it out?
• If you were in this position during your final year, what would you prioritize building: technical depth, credentials, internships, networking, or something else?

Not looking for motivational advice, but trying to understand how people with mixed technical/business interests actually navigated the early-career stage and what would be the best path for me.