Need Opinion:BB Trading Risk Analyst vs HF/AM Investment Operations Associate

Hi,

My current semi long run goal is to to make trader (realistically BB flow/exec, ideally HF prop) and am at cross roads for what my path should be.

Current: working on retail trading desk, service level. nothing fancy, more or less a foot in the door as a disposable monkey for a big 5 canadian bank.

Navigating the corporate BB to trading risk analyst will be super competitive, and even getting there remains a long road ahead of me to make it to a S&T trader.

An alternative route would be to apply for small HF/AM firms (that still have significant assets under mgmt), more specifically as a Investment Operations Associate. IOA pretty much does what I'm doing now but with a better title, and less service/retail exposure and more internal operations.

Right now I'm assuming the IOA pay could start less than what I'm at now but I'm curious what the opinions are for the HF/AM network career opportunities would be?

I've been with this current company pretty much since graduation, environment and culture is great, but at the end of the day its a big company and navigating it comes with high competition.

Would going the IOA route as an operations associate open doors for landing HF/AM execution traders vs staying at the BB and fighting my way through since the company would be smaller presumably easier to move forward if I get myself out there?

Any other insight is appreciated as well.