1st year Big4 consultant looking to move into MBB graduate role

Hey all,

I'm a MBB as a graduate in the fall. My division in the company has undergone a lot of restructuring and it has greatly affected the culture and the work that we do. One of the main reasons why I joined was the possibility of rapid career advancement, but with this restructuring, career paths will be more rigid and time-boxed. Additionally, a lot of the people I valued working with have left or will potentially do so in the near future. This affects not only the industries I get to work in but also the overall culture and sense of camaraderie. Lets put it this way, it's like I no longer work for the same firm I joined less than a year ago.

I'm still waiting for all the dust to settle (who knows, things may get better) but at this point, I'm really looking to assess my options.

I understand that MBB is open to taking people with less than 2-3 years of full time experience into their graduate roles because it says so explicitly on their websites.

Here are my questions:
1. Do you really think they would be open to a lateral hire for one of their graduate roles? Have you ever heard of this happening before?

2. How do I go about attempting this move? Specifically, how do I network with the right people? Recruitment events are tricky because as you can imagine, I can't just walk away from my colleagues and start networking with MBB recruiters.

For some context, here is my background:
My academic record is very strong and I have a lot of leadership experience. However, I did not study anything business-related and did not have any consulting/business internships. I think this hurt me when I was applying to consulting firms (the first time), because I only made it to first round interviews with 2 firms: BCG (non-European office) and my current firm. Although I may not have been a strong candidate CV-wise, I really proved myself in interviews and ended up getting full time offers from both firms. In the end, it was tough, but I turned down the BCG offer because I really wanted to stay in the UK.

Since joining my firm, I've performed well and have gotten a good range of projects in addition to a lot of client-facing time. I know I could stick it out for two or three years until I can make a lateral move as an experienced hire (potentially after an MBA), but:

a) I don't want to wait 2 years;
b) I really think I could benefit from 'repeating a year' as a new graduate hire at MBB;
c) Presumably with 1 more year of experience than my MBB intake, I could perform at a higher level and potentially move up faster

Sorry for the lack of brevity in this discussion message.
I'd appreciate any helpful insights you have to offer. Feel free to private message me too.

Thanks!