Exiting as an A2A versus a 2nd year analyst

It's anecdotal, but I've seen more IB analysts exit to other analyst/entry-level roles lately. I've also seen more people wait until they make associate and then try to exit to buy-side/corporate roles after the promotion. It seems like it's getting harder to make a diagonal move (promotion and exit) than it used to be, especially with PE firms and some big tech firms pulling from their own analyst/CF groups. Is this going to become more common? Does it make sense to grind for the A2A promotion before looking to exit, or will that pigeonhole you?

FWIW, I'm also at a good but not elite boutique and from a non-target school and probably more focused towards this group. I don't really think top group analysts from target schools will have too much trouble with this. 

If you moved from an IB analyst role to another analyst role or moved from an A2A to a buy-side/corp associate role, what was it like?

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