Help Me Formulate a Career Plan

I recently graduated a few weeks ago and was looking for advice. Below is my story, feel free to skip over that and read the bottom if you just want to see my questions. My goal in college was to break into quant trading. In my sophomore year I had messed around with quantopian and other "algorithmic trading" platforms, and despite being a finance major I found it really interesting. I taught myself some programming and became pretty knowledgeable about simple trading strategies, products, and market microstructure. I wasn't active in campus clubs/orgs and didn't have a stellar GPA (~3.4) but due to my interest/passion I was able to land a S&T junior internship at a top BB (GS/JPM/MS) rotating on their algo trading desks. I did really well on my first desk and was told I was on track to get an offer, while the other two desks I was on weren't hiring (this felt pretty unlucky). In the last two weeks of my internship the first desk told me that their team was no longer able to hire another trader (FICC, their division, was down ~45% YoY..) and would only be hiring a strat. They said that they would pool me together with the strat candidates (separate program) and consider me there. Well, unsurprisingly I lost out to two other interns with masters in computer science. I networked with some other desks and got a verbal offer from a pretty lame desk and decided to just move on at this point because I didn't want to hate my life just to be at a top BB. I also wasn't a huge fan of the high-ego culture of the firm, and the rest of my class was pretty lame to be honest. This was around August. Actually, I felt like I was totally fine at this point. I assumed that since I was able to get a trading internship at a top firm, I'd be able to get a full time offer. Boy, was I wrong. I wasn't aware of how accelerated recruiting programs had become and by the time I started applying there were hardly any positions available. Regardless, I interviewed at places like Citadel and Flow Traders but wasn't able to get an offer. It was at this point that I started to feel that shooting for a quant position as a finance major was totally pointless and that I had shot myself in the foot for pursuing something that deviated so far from my actual studies, no matter how interested I was in it. Anyways, I felt that IBD / HF / PE gigs were out of the question since I had no internship/modeling experience, so I began considering non-algo/quant roles and eventually interviewed at a foreign MM bank (BNP/NOMURA/SOCGEN) for their S&T program. However, the person who interviewed me said he thought I was great but wanted to put me in front of more technical/quanty desks since he thought it would be a better fit. Shortly after the head of the D1 trading desk reached out to me and said his team was looking for a technical person-- I ended up doing a series of interviews with them and got the offer, and I start the job in a few weeks. I'm pretty happy about this position for a few reasons: 1. I'm a fresh grad on a trading desk and I am very grateful for that 2. Everyone I met was smart / nice and seniors were mostly poached from top banks 3. They want me to program / work on the more technical, arbitrage strategy side of the desk 4. D1 gets exposure to tons of different products, economic regions, and strategies 5. This specific bank is exlcuded from the Volcker rule, so prop trading/risk taking is alive and well Really, my only concern about this position is the "prestige" of the firm. I know that's a stupid thing to care about, but I can't act like it doesn't matter in terms of exit opps. Also, the firm is going under a lot of restructuring at the moment, and its unclear what the future of the American operation is. Since I'll never really be a great "quant", I've put that dream aside. Instead, I think I would love to be at an investment firm that focuses on investing in emerging markets. Pretty much any global macro HF would be perfect. What do I need to do over the next few years to get there? Here are some questions I had: 1. Should I try to switch to another trading desk that's more relevant to global macro, or will I get sufficient experience as a technical person on a D1 desk? 2. Should I try to lateral to a BB, or does the fact that my firm is lower on the prestige scale not matter when recruiting at global macro funds? If lateraling to a BB is a good move, how can I best prep for that and go about it? 3. What else can I do to make myself a top candidate for a global macro HF? E.g., is modeling experience a must? Thanks. Undergrads, feel free to ask if you have questions about algo-trading/S&T/the recruiting cycle.