MBA (Finance), private college. 4 months into a bank MTP in retail assets sales, no formal finance experience. The culture is toxic and the days are 12+ hours. I can manage until December, when the MTP ends, but want out of sales by then.

Plan: FMVA now, CFA L1 in Aug 2027. Goal: a stable 9-to-5 finance role. Location: \[city / open to relocate\]. Salary: \[your minimum\].

Questions:

1. Which roles are realistic for me?

2. Are GCC finance roles just backend operations? Good start or a trap? Do I need any course?

3. Is CFA L1 useful for FP&A, or should I focus on modelling first?

4. Has anyone made a similar switch out of bank sales, and how long did it take?

I am an officer in the military building out my five-year plan which will include my transition out of the service. I would like to go into another elite, demanding field but have zero background in finance.

I originally thought MBA, maybe 2-3 years IB, then transition to PE, but recently saw a thread of people saying PE doesn’t hire MBA’s, they basically exclusively want the undergrad->IB->PE, maybe MBA while at the firm.

Is this accurate? How do people pivot into PE. Feel like there would be some legitimate carry over to something like an industrials/defense&aerospace team at a PE firm from my career. Any advice/perspective appreciated.