Urgently need career path guidance

Hi everyone,

I’ve come to WSO asking for serious advice for direction at this point of my life as I’ve fallen off the boat and truly wish to get back on. To give you some background, I have BS from St. John’s University, majoring in Finance. I graduated a year late in 2010 with a 2.8 GPA. I took on lousy jobs for roughly 4 years, which only made my marketability worse as I feel I am now at a disadvantage competing with 2014 graduates. Earlier this year, I took on a temp position collating taxes at KPMG, but tax is definitely not for me. Since August, I’ve been working at a small private brokerage firm that works in venture debt. My role encompasses searching for startup companies that are in the market for debt (as opposed to equity dilution or to compliment their equity round), strike up conversation with their CEO/CFO, create a financial snapshot with the due diligence items provided, send the borrowing company our proposal, and finally create a financial memorandum for my boss and the lender for presentation purposes. The job is 100% commission, and let’s just say I wouldn’t have taken it if I was told truthfully about it during the interview. I feel that I’ve already learned what I can at this job and have already mentally clocked out. I’m waiting for this one big deal to finalize. It’s either it funds and I walk away feeling my time here was worthwhile, or it doesn’t fund and I basically worked for pennies with the little commission I’ve earned.
At this point, I feel very stuck. I’m a B-person aspiring to be an A-person. I want to catch up to my peers quickly career and salary-wise. I’m 27 and want to find a way that get me up there. Since college, I thought the entrance into finance was a junior analyst position, but I would like to know what other routes there are for me to climb quickly. I have thoughts of taking the CFA exams, but I have my doubts. It caters specifically to investments. In my head, that means IB which is shooting for the stars for someone in my position at this point. What positions would I be able to gain from holding a charter, aside from bragging rights? It would be terrible to sacrifice 3 years studying hard to achieve it just to land a job as junior analyst, when I could have spent the time leisurely working my way up to that position. I very much appreciate any guidance at this point.