Career Change out of Big 4

providing, regulatory, accounting, sat, experience

Hello,

I just sat for L3 (fingers crossed) and I'm contemplating a) what I should do to get experience for a prospective charter and, b) how I could maximize the value of a prospective charter. I've had four years experience working in the financial services advisory practice at a big 4 firm, providing controls based advisory work and regulatory consulting services to many of the large hedge funds. I have a bachelors in finance, accounting and internal audit and I'm a CPA.

I've determined that I need to get my career better aligned with the investment management process in one form or another. I realize that my background will appeal to firms for the controls side of the house, but I want to get away from being project based and find a role aligned with the investment management process. Has anyone else made a similar lateral career change? Can it be done without getting an MBA? (I realize the MBA will improve my network and provide a recruiting pool, but I've been told that CFA/CPA is going to have covered a lot of the coursework).

Any guidance or experiences are greatly appreciated.

Thanks