Financial Engineering to IB / Consulting?

Hi all,

I'm a final year graduate student in Financial Engineering at a top program in the States. However, I've realized that I'm not very keen to be a Quant and am instead extremely interested in client-facing, capital markets / corporate finance roles.

Unfortunately, the traditional recruiting pipeline for the kinds of front office roles I like (S&T, IB, M&A, Financing, Consulting etc.) is undergrad internship -> full time Analyst; which I have obviously missed out on.

With my current qualification, I am only getting interviewed by roles I am not interested in, nor am a competitive candidate for in comparison to my cohort who are Math Olympiad winners and ace programmers from India and China.

Could you please advise what kinds of entry-level roles I should target in the short term to set myself up for a career in IB / Consulting a few years down the line, potentially after an MBA if needed? Here are some details about my current qualifications:

Age - 24M

Undergrad - Electrical Engineering at a Top 10 program from the US

Work Ex - over 2 years worth of internships in manufacturing (think TSLA GOOG SPACEX), R&D, academia (research in solar cells, worked on a project for a Big US Asset Manager, working on a Quant Finance paper with a Professor), a FinTech start-up; worked in Europe as well

Leadership and Extra-curriculars - active member of undergrad engineering student club, student orientation leader, mentor to international students, math / physics tutor, TA for several courses, co-Founder of Finance Club in my grad program

GPA - above a 3.7 in both undergrad and masters

Visa Status - F1 (Canadian resident)

Ethnicity - Indian

Besides this, I've worked hard to thrive beyond the classroom and become a well-rounded person with interesting hobbies and experiences, while taking challenging classes across the spectrum and maintaining a good GPA.

Thanks so much for your frank feedback and constructive criticism. Cheers!

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