Someone who realized they wanted banking late

Hi everyone, my name is John. I’m new to the WSO community.  I graduated  from Umich this past winter (sem early). I majored in Computer science and Econ, with a minor in finance through Ross. I was pretty tech focused up until junior year and decided to pivot into IB. Unfortunately, I was not aware of the brutal and structured pipeline and have struggled in terms of recruiting. My goal is to work in banking and attain those desirable traits that I see everyone in these forms talk about. After that, I’ll see if my interest & experiences leave me in banking or lead me elsewhere (Pe,hf,etc). I want some genuine advice on what people would reccomend on how to get there. I’ve heard it all from: try to work at a regional boutique/MM and try to lateral into an analyst group, some have also said to enjoy and figure out what my interests specifically are then go to a top B-school and get ready for the grind, others have said try to attain relevant experience first then just to try to get some internship at a firm and go from there. I’m just tryna get a gauge on what would be ideal possible paths. And follow up would be: how does this affect exit opps (analyst vs associate level), what types of firms to look at rn, etc.im also considering a 1yr masters program after. Any advice or recs would be much appreciated. Thanks.

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