How to go from Data Science to HF?

Like the title says. I really don't like the "good enough" culture I'm seeing in my data science job and would like to join a HF.

These are the areas I'd like to explore - low latency (related to what I do at my current job), event-driven (I like how data science-y these problems are), global macro (just seems interesting and exciting), and crypto funds (I've been very deep into it, so much so that I'm discovering alphas of my own that I want to try my hand at implementing some strategies).

I'm pretty good at my job right now and because I do lots of market structure related work, I do get recruiters reach out to me on LinkedIn about data science or QR roles at systematic funds. I'm also a part of more legitimate crypto chat groups and have been reached out by a crypto fund. But I seem to have trouble getting past the initial screen at most places for some reason. I think it's because I'm either not exactly what they're looking for or maybe there are just more qualified people. FYI, most places that have reached out so far are quantamental shops and I see why I might not be a great fit there... Also had an LO AM reach out and even did a super day. Just wasn't a culture fit...

I'm pretty comfortable at showing my technical and analytical prowess but it's hard to show these...

Really looking for help in the following ways - 1) How to pro-actively get interviews at places I want to end up at, 2) Is networking necessary at all, 3) Should I rely on recruiters at all?, 4) what I should I prepare for in my interviews?