New to Canada- where do I take my Finance and Investments Career?

Hello everyone!

So I moved to Toronto Canada last year from Beirut Lebanon. Came here with an undergraduate degree in business admin. And 5 years of experience working at bank in what can be categorised as Sales and Trading I believe (catered to investment/hedging needs of retail clients- Forex, options, bonds, stocks).

Managed to land a back office role here to pay bills and have passed my CFA level 1. Spent the past year talking to people in the industry to see where I want to take my career and I am more lost than when I started. Below are the arguments I currently have against some of the directions I thought of:

  • Asset Management: Been working in the back office of this field and not being front office has made me despise it a bit. Also I am not sure I want to be a Portfolio Manager. Still not totally putting it aside but it does seem like a boring niche in general.

  • IB: sounds more like what I would like to do - I used to enjoy being involved on IPOs and deals in my old job. Problem is I don't know any modeling. I considered doing an MBA to break in but IB professionals tell me with the reduced time for analysts to become associates there will be even less spots and it is no longer ensured you will get into IB with an MBA. Meaning you risk being left with the loan of 200k.

PE: subject matter wise definitely the most interesting (the exposure to different sectors/new start ups intrigues me). But it's even harder to get into than IB and requires IB before.

ER: most plausible to get into. Would need me to learn modeling and spend more time following a sector. Downside is everyone keeps telling me it no longer pays well based on what you are made to do.

With that said, and based on my experience, what would you recommend I pursue? I want to be in something that intrigues me and pays me atleast 60k-100k.

Thanks for the feedback. Cheers!

 

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