Hi sir, your words were a motivating factor throughout the last 7 years and yes it has been a very difficult journey ever since. I failed in my CA multiple times and could complete it only in 2019. However, since then, I worked as an equity analyst for 2 years in a mutual fund - acquired some quant and programming skills which eventually got me promoted to fund manager. Recently, I have received an offer to work as a quant analyst from a reputed investment company wherein I'll be working alongside some IIT and MBA graduates. True by your words, getting into an MFE program was impossible for me as no college was ready to accept my credentials - however, I was able to crack this quant job after a few very grilling interviews. I am still enthusiastic about becoming a quant and I am pursuing CFA as well to build up my career. I agree to the fact that I still have a very long way to go before I can reach a level where I can be truly called a quant - but now, that fantasy has started coming within the sight. Thank you for all your motivating words - it ensured that I do not give up on my dreams.
Firstly, let me give you a reality check, India doesn't have any true FO quant jobs except the QIS team at Goldman that works directly with the NY team or Quant research not developer at HFT's such as Tower, AlphaGrep, etc..(Quant Developer in India is basically an SDE). Many banks consider this background as the best fit for what they call "Quant roles" -->
Computer Science or Mathematics & computing undergrads with a low to 0 Finance knowledge. Imagine not knowing how to price a basic European call option using BSM/Binomial tree, and not knowing how to calculate forward rates from spot curves and calling yourself a quant. These positions are actually Strats not quants. Therefore, be very careful with the roles and JD, and make sure that you are advancing in all the pillars of Quantitative finance (Stats/ML, Math, Programming and Finance).
Secondly, CFA is very good to develop a high-level product knowledge and an intro to Quantitative portfolio management (in Level-2).
Finally, the Indian education system is very rigorous for engineers, unlike for commerce and business fields, because it teaches you
real problem solving even before you enter IITs, NITs, etc.. During your BTech, you further develop them by applying those problem solving skills in real life practical applications. I personally cannot believe that a CA can make it as a Quant, but maybe a fake Quant.
However, I think that maybe you ended up as a CA because of the Heard mentality in most Indians, so I can understand your motivation, maybe you really are passionate about this field. Given that you are too determined, maybe you can turn things around. My only advice will be to develop math and programming skills, not just to solve problems, but to build the intuition behind the concepts.
A day will come when you will see a math problem, and instead of starting to write various formulas on paper and get the answer by checking which formula fits, you'll just keep starring at the problem for a while trying to find a couple of different ways to solve it inside your head.