How does lateraling in IB work?

I have an offer for capital markets group at a low tier BB, which I will take due to current market conditions.

In the future, I am thinking of lateraling to a better bank/group, but I don't understand how lateraling works. Some questions I have are:

- Are there specific job postings that want 2nd year analysts?

- Am I supposed to start applying online when I have 6-9 months of experience in my current role?

- If I am able to lateral, will I have to start over from scratch again? Or will I be treated like a 2nd year analyst, similar to other analyst who originally started at that bank/group?

I think I will want to lateral in the future, but I won't want to if I have to start from scratch and if it will still take me 2-3 years to get promoted to an associate. 

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