FT 2022 ER not getting any interviews

Hello,

I thought I would make this post as I am not sure what else to do given that nothing is going on at the moment. I missed a lot of applications that closed in August as I was expecting a return offer from the LO AM that I interned with this summer, but it turns out they were on a hiring freeze since last March due to underperformance and were horrible in communicating it to me (I have a strong LoR from my manager so I don't think they lied to me about it).

Since then I have applied to every ER and AM posting and so far every interview I have had was from someone who misread my resume and thought I already graduated! I am more qualified than I have ever been with one ER, one AM, and now one HF internship under my belt, and I am not getting any interviews at all. Is the FT ER cycle just a lot later in fall or did I completely miss it? I see some people on here getting interviews and modeling tests, so I am wondering if maybe there is something wrong with my app. Also, I am realizing that a lot of ER firms are only hiring based on need and looking to fill spots immediately, but it sucks to have that uncertainty until I graduate next May.

Would you guys recommend now shifting my focus to emailing people on the teams I applied to and asking to connect with them? Not sure what else I can do at this point to expedite this process and at least start getting interviews.

Thank you for any wisdom!