Figured I should introduce myself

How's it going WSO. Been trolling around here for a few months now picking up tons of knowledge from the various posts/forums, figured I should introduce myself and start trying to connect with some of the well-informed people on here. In a few sentences my deal is that I'm a recent graduate from a total non-target finance school in the midwest with classic big fish in a small pond syndrome - 4.0 GPA in finance courses, computer science experience, managing the student-run fund, studying for CFA during summers - meanwhile most peers are graduating still trying to figure out what a cash-flow statement is, dont know the difference between Comm Banking, AM, and PE. Blah blah blah you guys know the story.

Main areas of interest to break into are Investment Management(primarily portfolio management, starting out in a research role/associate operations role with ability to transition into research) followed by Boutique IB - pretty much hoping to stay in Chicago long-term. Currently to bridge the gap of where I'm at vs. where I want to be I'm working through the CFA industry fundamentals program, taking Aswath Damodaran's NYU MBA Valuation, Corp. Fin., and Investment Philosophies classes online, got about 10 classic investing/economics/strategy books to get through, and plan to get Bloomberg Market Concepts and CFI Financial Valuation Analyst certified once I can get settled in an entry level gig(hopefully outside of telling at a retail bank/selling insurance). Also found a nice self-paced VBA class by looking through the forums on here and know Codecademy/Khan have some good stuff on SQL/Python.

Any additional resources to continue my learning or tips on hustling/networking as a non-target would be more than appreciated - although I know there are already a ton of topics on the site already regarding these topics.

Will forever be grateful to WSO and its community for helping me access high-quality info about the finance industry and how to navigate it. Happy to be here and continue being apart of the community learning and helping however I can.

Thanks for enduring this novel, A Sleepy Young Analyst