I have a non-financial degree and almost no professional experience. What should I do to transition into corporate finance?

I've worked for my families commercial real estate firm for the past 7 years. In that time, I worked closely with executive leadership from large REIT's to large gaming companies. I set my sights on finance after working with a hedge fund manager who was helping us market equity shares of a project we were working on. My actual desire is to work in P/E or a hedge fund or similar discipline, though I realize that could be a tough gig to land.

I'm taking CFA L1 in December. While I wouldn't go so far as to say I am confident, I do feel relatively good about my chances. My only other financial experience is some modeling ability, which I picked up while working with the aforementioned hedge manager.

I recognize that my background doesn't make me an ideal candidate for most jobs (especially P/E, etc) but I am an extremely hard worker and quickly pick up what I need to learn. I am starting to network through my cousin (senior analyst at S&P) as well as through the hedge fund managers I worked with, but it wouldn't be prudent to rest all of my hopes on them.

One thing I have considered is applying for an executive assistant role at a large hedge fund or commercial bank. While I am not keen on the idea of being a career administrative assistant, I do have many of the skills necessary and I figure it would give me fantastic networking access. Besides that, I am struggling trying to figure out how to make this transition.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Zach Dragone