MBA to "Re-Brand"?

I've just graduated from a non-target Canadian university (BBA, Honours in Finance and Accounting). My overall GPA was 3.4 and major GPA 3.9 (4.3 scale). I've done 2 co-op terms, one at a local pension fund and another at a large Canadian asset management company. Mostly doing day-to-day back-end accounting work, taxation of investment funds, and NAV oversight. I will be joining the asset management company full-time in a senior analyst role in Toronto post-graduation. My goal is to eventually transition to IB, preferably in NYC. I know that my GPA isn't the best, nor is the school I went to. I've been looking into getting into an MBA program in the US with hopes of "re-branding" and going into IB. I currently plan to work for this company for 3-4 years to get the work experience required to get into an MBA program in the States. I am wondering what I can work on in the meantime to "beef up" my application to have a chance at getting into a target school MBA program. Is CPA or CFA worth the time and effort? Looking for any guidance or tips of what I can do to better my application in 4 years' time.

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These seem like really roundabout and wasteful ways to get into IB if that’s your goal. I mean working for 4 years then MBA, that will take you 6 years to break in? And the CFA will take 900 hours of study, 870 of which are not even related at all to building a high earning career in M&A advisory or private equity? Idk maybe if you really enjoy killing time.

Why not just work for 1 year, be a top ranked employee, use your free time from not working 80 hours a week to master IB technicals and financial modeling, then network with NYC IB folks from Canada, and break into IB that way? That way instead of wasting 6 years and $200k (true cost of mba at least $600k if you count foregone income from 2 years of IB) you spend 1 year then begin an IB career. Keep only your high GPA on your resume or remove the metric altogether.

 

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