Need guidance on career path - FP&A - IB?

I cleared my CPA (took a fair bit of time), interned for 3 years at a mid-size firm. Did audits there. Wanted to get into an IB. Areas of interest are capital raising, valuations, forecasting, DD, M&A, fund raising, analyst roles at PEs/VCs, Transaction Advisory, Deal Advisory and other similar areas. I tried to get into FDD in the Big 4 accounting firms. Didn't get called for 3 of them. Didn't get selected in the other one. Tried for a lot of IBs and PEs and VCs. After searching for 4 months, in pursuit of IB, I finally got into one of the biggest IBs there are (the biggest probably), but for Fund Accounting. Thought if things work out I'll get a change internally. A few months down I realised it wasn't happening. Gave my CFA Level I, cleared. Started job hunting, but didn't receive a lot of interest from the recruiters of the profiles that I wanted. I quit from there after a year so that I could focus on my Level II CFA. Awaiting results. Meanwhile, I cracked the interview for an FP&A role at a startup (seemed like a good place to work). Now I do not know if this will lead to anywhere or should I just take this as a dead end to the IB dream. I have listed the places I've applied to in the last 2 months and it's come upto about 50 (including boutique IBs and ER roles and what not), so it's not that I haven't tried. I'm 27 so I can't go for beginner/intern roles anymore. I'm ready for a pay cut too as long as it's reasonable. Is MBA the only option now? Also, any guidance on how FP&A roles are or where they lead to or any motivation on that front would be extremely helpful. Thanks!