Too old. Do I do an MBA or JD or MBA/JD?

I'm 30yos with 5 years of Commercial Banking experience. I've tried to break into IB and Corporate Banking which are the only two areas of finance, besides PE, I am interested in working in but I failed at breaking into either.

The feedback I'm getting now is that I'm too old. No one wants to hire me as a first year analyst and my experience isn't good enough to get a 2nd+ year analyst or Associate position. This is despite the fact I'm willing to work as a first year analyst. I've had this feedback from multiple different banks, including the bank I work for. A friend of mine is an Analyst at BoA and he couldn't even get me an interview for an Analyst role in CB. They straight up told him they only want to hire a woman with 1 year of experience tops.

I already have completed my CFA and FRM designations. My undergrad was a major in Finance, minor in accounting from a top university. 3.4 CGPA. 3.8 Major GPA.

This basically puts me in a situation where I feel my only option left is to do an MBA and hope for the best. The problem is that an MBA is a $300M venture (when factoring costs and lost wages). That's a huge gamble for "a chance" at recruitment again. I don't believe I will actually learn very much from an MBA program. For an extra $150M I can get a JD as well where I'll definitely learn something useful and then it opens the doors for me to move into law if finance fails as a career for me.

I'm wondering if I can just skip an MBA though. Do you think I would have a decent shot at making Associate in IB or Corporate Banking given my background and education with just a JD or is it worth the additional $200M for the MBA? Will I even get a decent Associate role in IB or CB or should I just go full law then switch even later? I've seen some VPs get hired into IB with only a law background.

 

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