Moving to Fixed Income S&T

Currently work as a 1st year in an M&A group at a very solid, albeit not BB firm (think Jefferies, Rothschild, Greenhill level). The firm has pretty consistent placement into MM PE funds with occasional megafund placement here and there, so exit opportunities are definitely there. after 6 months, I realized that I ahve absolutely no desire to pursue PE as I hate my current job and feel that PE is just going to be banking 2.0. What I hate most is the pace of the job, and I feel like PE is going to be even slower given the level of due diligence (have been staffed on a sponsor-backed deal for past 3 months and cannot imagine doing PE long term).

HF's are obviously an option, but I would prefer to start at a larger platform as I am actually leaning more towards Sales roles than trading roles.

My question to you guys is - when should I try to make the move, and how to I go about doing it? I just got my mid-year review and have done very well, but I am still having trouble finding opportunities (every headhunter i have spoken to has focused on PE, HF, and lateral IBD opportunities but not non-IBD opporutnities at banks).