Networking w/ Rates Traders at HF

Yo, did an internship on the rates desk at a bank. Primarily focused on vol and swaps… while I was at it I wrote down names of hf’s and the pm’s that were pinging my mentor( vanilla/exo trader) on IB. I want to talk to some prop/hf guys, but I’m very worried bc rates vol world is small and I have a return offer so I don’t word to come back to my mentor. I also don’t see how I can add value to hf’s in the vol/swaps (rv) space rn w no trading experience or license… Is it worth trying to network around? pls lmk