Public Accounting to ER

I am a year into my job as an auditor (started immediately after undergrad) at a Big 4 public accounting firm and I absolutely hate it. I am far more interested in finance and would like to make a switch into equity research.

The problem is I’m not sure where to begin that process and how to overcome the obstacles I’ll face to even be considered for an associate position. I was a double major in accounting and finance at a semi-target school, GPA was definitely on the lower end at 3.45. I don’t have any professional experience in finance as all my internships have been on the accounting side. While I’ve audited large mutual fund clients, there’s little I can leverage from my experiences there.

I have a decent alumni network but is networking alone even enough to overcome my low GPA and lack of experience in finance? What about the MBA route? Or CFA? How beneficial would that be?

Please help. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

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