Career path? What's realistic and what's not?

I just finished my first year of work at an insurance company, where I work for their investment division. We have a subadviser system (we hire others to manage our money), and I'm on the team in charge of that. Since this really isn't back office (nor front office I think), I'm am a little confused as to where I stand relative to other positions commonly discussed in WSO. I'm curious as to what career goals are realistic for me and what isn't and I was hoping you guys could help out with that. I'm hoping to eventually work on the buyside doing PE/HF, or maybe in consulting, but I don't see myself doing the latter (and maybe even the former) without a good MBA. I'm also aiming for a top tier MBA too.

I went to an ivy and majored in engineering, although my ugrad grades weren't the best (around 3.1). I also did a 1 year masters in engineering with a slightly higher GPA (3.3) before deciding to do finance instead. I'm aware that if I land a top tier MBA acceptance, PE/HF/consulting will be possible. Assuming I don't get a MBA, only a CFA, what kind of job prospects and career paths relative to my goals should I expect?

 

There's no expected path, one guy who is now an MD at a MM started as a professor at a med school and researcher, moved to entrepreneurship, buyside analyst to sell side. An admittedly odd path, but among the senior guys that I've met, there doesn't seem to be a "path". More analogous to your situation was another guy I knew, they started in non-profit/gov't/military space, target MBA, corp fin doing a treasury/pensions role to AM, eventually making PM. Your path is what you make of it.

 

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