You have your entire life ahead of you. If you can master stock trading, you can write your own check. Working for a boss is overrated. If I can bring back time, I would bring it back 30-40 years back and with what I know now in trading, I can do serious damage. Maybe, I have 10 years left of productive trading depending on my health. I am in my 60s now and retired. So, you have your entire lifetime. Do not waste it. Buckle down and master trading and you and your family will be in a better financial place.
Look at the largest asset managers of all stripes in your hometown. Many offer everything from apprentice roles on trading desks to internships. Did you do any on/off-campus visits with recruiters? With the exception of Hong Kong, most of Asia is booming. Don't let anybody tell you what you're not capable off and many of the world's best-known trading/investing shops have tons of folks without premier academic credentials or history. The world-class banks all are seeking top college talent and recruit at the best schools, but many of them are supported by talent, often without great education credentials. Get a friend with a Bloomberg to search for openings in your desired markets. If you can't find a friend with a Bloom see if the local libraries have one. One wildcard is to look at entry positions with the regulators in your desired market.
Get a job, preferably in the investment/trading industry to get an idea of how it works from the institution's side. Work there for a few year and work up a saving, large saving, as large as possible. Find a reliable and decent partner in life. Find them while you are poor while you are still working so you can eliminate the gold diggers. This is VERY important. And then once you've gained enough experience and savings, quit and trade for yourself. The best company to work for is no company at all! Always!! But in order to have a profitable trading career, it's VERY VERY important to have a life partner that is reliable and decent and is willing to stand by you while you establish your trading career cuz in the beginning you WILL be making losses while figuring things out and you need your life partner there standing by you supporting you, psychologically and possibly financially. Good luck!
Trading for myself fulltime would definitely be my end goal, but finding my edge and consistency would take years. So in the meantime I would also need to develop a stable career in case I am not cut out for trading. To speed up my learning process I was hoping to also develop a career at a trading desk so I get hands on experience with other people's money. However, after reading some posts and how competitive this industry is, I believe I should develop my career elsewhere while trading personally on the side?
Give up and seek a different career, it seems very apparent that you are not really passionate about a trading career at all. Why you want to learn coding? What have you done the past 4 years??? Chances to land at a bank are slim for anyone with a top GPA from a tier 1 school with coding skills, top analytical, probability and stats skills. Your chances seem not just slim but non existent. You should have made up your mind 4 years ago and worked hard to doing everything that those bank jobs require instead of fishing for slim chances now. Don't take it the wrong way. But I think you will regret a trading career even if you got a chance at a shop. You don't appear to be driven at all for this specific career. And non driven people in this job get absolutely butchered and slaughtered. Trust me, I have seen many, and after a short 2 or 3 years they left, did an MBA and never came back to finance. They now say they were just not made for a trading job.
Glad you realized that yourself. See, someone who was absolutely driven would not have a single doubt in his mind like you do. Take inventory of the skills today not some dreams or plans you have for tomorrow. If you don't know anything or have no passion to die for anything in particular then sorry I can't help you, find a mediocre job in a mediocre company, hate your job and earn money and save like most all lemmings do. If you identify a passion and you have the matching skills then go for it no matter what. Press hard. Don't care what others say or think. But nobody would need to tell you if you were very passionate about something. So either way, it's worthless advise no matter what.