BB Operations to Sales, Help.

Hello,

I'm currently a final-year student at a top 20 UK university (non-target for IB, semi-target at best). I'm doing Bachelor of Arts in Management, expected grade 2:1 (I guess that's 3.0-3.5 GPA). I want to do Sales (S&T) or M&A. To be honest, I would be happy with literally anything that is FO/prestigious enough for a decent MBA in 4-5 years time. I know it sounds stupid, but please keep reading.

Background:

I was raised in poverty in Eastern Europe. Had to work since I graduated high school. My parents couldn't help me at all, they actually needed my help (my dad is disabled and unemployed, my mother is a cleaner). Took a gap year to earn enough money for a plane ticket, english certificate and some other admin costs and applied for some universities in the UK. Eventually got into a decent university in a low cost location where I could afford to live/survive on a 20 hours minimum wage part-time job. When I arrived here I had about £1000 in total and was hoping to get ANY job before my money runs out, not summer internships or spring weeks. Sometimes I had to work 30 or 40 hours while studying full-time at university to be able to pay rent and buy food, even took a second job delivering pizzas with a bicycle. Hence my grade and poor choice of BA degree.

Anyway, I'm competitive and ended up interested in investment banking. I did everything I could do to get exposure and experience, student societies, insight days, online courses. Got a spring week in my first year at a BB, in Ops. Managed to get 3 final-round interviews (two for S&T and one for ER at different BBs). However, I didn't get them and I got a BB Operations internship in London (think GS/MS/JPM) in my penultimate year. I knew Ops is not what I want to do in the long term, but I had nothing left and considering my situation I needed the money from the internship. The team was pretty decent, client-facing, middle office, working quite closely with Sales & Trading (as good as it gets for Ops), and I got an offer.

Now I'm in my final year and I have only this offer. I didn't try to transfer to another division at my bank because I was scared that I will be left with nothing. Also, the salary they offered me is astronomical for my standards as you can probably imagine. I've tried to apply for several internships in Sales at most of the big investment banks because of my experience with S&T Ops, all were unsuccessful so far. I applied for M&A internships at several small boutiques, as well. I know you might think I don't know what I want - I know I want M&A, but I'm trying to be realistic. Kids with an arts degree, average grades, average university and average internships don't typically get into M&A. On the positive side, I'm an extrovert, I get along with people and I have some my S&T middle office experience -> why I decided to go for Sales now and M&A post-MBA. It just feels a little bit more achievable.

My question is: How could I position myself for a Sales role considering my situation? Should I take that job for a year and then go for a MSc in Finance at LSE/Oxford/Imperial etc. in 2020-2021 (a year in Ops will certainly help with costs). I've considered taking CFA Level 1 before I start my job (June 2019), would that be beneficial? Would it be worth it to stay at the BB Ops job and try to move internally? Is there even a chance for a decent MBA if you're coming from Ops at a top tier bank? If I do get transferred internally, say in 2 years, would that be looked favourably by top MBA schools (is it impressive to see someone who spent 2 years in ops and 2 years in FO later as opposed to someone who got straight into FO)?

Thank you all for reading this. And please don't trash me, I just want to help my family while doing something interesting.