Aspiring quant looking for feedback

Hello all,

A little bit about myself...I just graduated in May from a non-target public on the east coast with a bias toward the liberal arts but an up-and-coming business school. I declared a math major my sophomore year because I had no idea what I wanted to do, I liked math, and I figured it would be practical when I figured out what I wanted. I took 2 actuarial exams (but didn't pass), 1/Probability and 2/Financial Mathematics, my junior year. Having never been exposed to finance, I found the mathematical presentation of time value of money, annuities, etc. very interesting, so I took on a finance minor, which at my school consists of the same requirements of the major minus the b-school core classes: marketing, project management, etc.

As a junior taking principles of accounting and intro to financial management, I felt like I was behind, despite the fact that I really enjoyed the classes and did well in them. On a related note, up to recently I'd felt I had somewhat of an inferiority complex -- my finance classmates had been taking these classes since freshman/sophomore year, during which time I was trucking through multivariable calculus, intro to mathematical proofs, etc., all great classes, but even late junior/early senior year, I didn't feel enough confident in my background knowledge of finance to sell myself to employers. Anyway, I took a class in financial derivatives (which I had studied for actuarial exam 2/FM) fall of senior year where the professor tried to teach a class room of econ/finance students senior-level mathematical statistics, stochastic calculus, and thermodynamics in order to further their understanding of financial derivatives and financial models. Since I already had the math background, I ate that shit up and at that point realized that there is a place for someone like me in finance, that is, someone who cares to understand why the models work, how they work, and what they mean, rather than just plugging inputs into a blackbox and accepting outputs as "true".

I didn't do a great job networking during my time as a student; my job searching as an undergraduate consisted of me applying to online listings at BBs, HFs, PT shops, etc. and never hearing back from them. Needless to say, I didn't have great previous work/internship experience, I worked as a server during every break from school through my junior year, and from July before senior year through my graduation I interned at the local branch office for a discount brokerage firm (I'll give you a hint...it rhymes with DougTrade) doing menial administrative tasks which severely underutilized my problem solving ability and interests in probability and statistics. Finally, once I graduated with no active job prospects and moved back home with my parents, I became more proactive in reaching out to professors and connections. I was introduced to some alumni connections and felt like if I had continued doing what I was doing, then I would have landed some sort of entry-level junior quant/fixed income/analytic-type position in the next several months. I say "if I had continued" because around this time, I received an offer for a fund accountant position at a HF administrator 10 minutes from my parent's house in my hometown and decided to accept it, because I was tired of sitting around with nothing to do and wanted to get started gaining work experience. While I'm not sure exactly which industry I want to go into, I'm intellectually interested in trading, investing, and finding arbitrage in the financial markets, so HF is definitely a possibility, and at this firm, I get to see real-life HF operations, how the industry works, etc., despite the fact that I am definitely more interested in the stuff that the funds are doing than doing cash and position recs as an administrator (although I love the numbers and logic basis behind accounting, so I'm definitely not complaining about it as an entry-level position).

My 2-5 year plan consists of several parts:

First of all, I want to kick ass at work, develop a reputation for picking complicated concepts up quickly, and deliver results for the organization. I have been told (and frankly, I default to thinking this way) that this is the kind of place where you get out what you put in. I want to make sure that everything that I can control meets and exceeds expectations, and I know that they are keeping an eye on me during my initial 90 day probationary period, so I am confident that opportunities for additional responsibilities, etc. are there for me to earn.

Second, I plan to continue my formal education. BS in Mathematics does not equal quantitative expertise on wall st, so my next big step will be to begin a quantitative graduate program, although I have not decided between a masters in financial engineering/mathematical finance/quantitative finance (Columbia, UChicago, NYU, Princeton's MFin are obvious targets, but after hearing about the math geniuses who attend these programs, I do not know if I am even a competitive candidate), a masters in applied mathematics/statistics/operations research (there are a handful of universities, even in the city I live in, which offer these types of programs), and/or a PhD in applied math/stats/OR. MFin programs with curriculum similar to Princeton's are appealing because of their quantitative nature, but it is my understanding that most masters in finance programs aren't as math-heavy as what I'm looking for. MBA has also been suggested to me, but I do not think that is the route for me...of course, nothing is in stone and by no means have I explored every MBA possibility, so I an open to hearing more about that as well.

On a related note to #2, I have not yet taken GRE or GMAT. My SAT scores were pretty good considering that my preparation was minimal, so I'm confident that I will do well given how much my study habits and I have matured from 4 (actually 5 at this point) years ago. I'm going to take a practice GRE this week to gauge where I am (especially with the quantitative score), then study my ass off to earn a perfect (or as close to perfect as possible) score on the quant portion. My UG GPA was in the 3.4-3.5 range, so I need my GRE to show that my quantitative aptitude is on par with what those programs require.

Finally, I want to find an outlet for my quantitative interests in the meantime, while I am working at this firm but have not yet begun a formal (and at this point, I am thinking full-time) graduate program. I do not know if the area I am in has any quantitative finance professional organizations/chapters, but I am definitely trying to expose myself to that type of thing; I've been told my hometown has a society of financial analysts (not sure of the exact name), maybe they have a quantitative arm? I don't know much about the CFA, but maybe that is something I should think about pursuing? One more option would be, once I take the GRE, to enroll in part time classes (maybe one or two a semester) toward a masters in statistics/operations research at the university in my hometown. I would not plan for this to be a substitute for #2, but just something to do in the meantime to build up my resume.

Huge thanks to anyone who read this novel...I really appreciate any thought/input/feedback/suggestions that you may have for me. I left out most of the specifics behind my quantitative background out of fear of boring anyone, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Thanks again!

TL;DR: Recent graduate math major/finance minor, currently working as a fund accountant at a HF admin, wants to become a quant. Looking for feedback and criticism. Thanks!