Final year of Master's degree: what to do with the offer I got?

Hi everyone,

I am a student in a well-known university in continental Europe (strong in the country, less strong when placing in UK). My GPA is decent (top 25% of the cohort) and during my master in Finance I have been working part time in the Credit Risk department of a local bank (lets say top 50 in Europe for Total Assets).

During these past months I have been targeting the Asset Management division of various investment banks as well as asset management firms in London. I had the chance to be an intern there and loved the city, so I would have liked to move back there. Unfortunately almost all of my applications have been rejected so far and I am in the interview process with only one firm (I will know whether I get to the assessment centre by the beginnning of January).

Probably my profile was too weak on the experience side (only one internship in ER and this part-time job).

In the meanwhile, I have also been offered a FT position in my team, starting from March, and I have no idea about what to do about everything. So I wanted to ask you a suggestion to you about what to do next if my final goal would be to end up in Asset Management.

• Should I take the position independently of anything else? If I then get the position I want in London and leave in September I think it would be a big disappointment for my head of department and that would mean leave the team with bad terms. They are interviewing other candidates and it would be a big waste of time if I take the position and then leave again after only 6 months.
• Should I directly reject if I get the assessment center in London or maybe not consider the position in any case and keep looking for positions in Asset Management (and eventually some alternative division)?
• If I decide to keep looking around, what would be a relatively easier position to land, that would make easier a later move to Asset Management?

Thanks in advance for the help.