2024 Full Time Recruiting Process/Timeline

Hi all, I am a rising senior at a semi-target and I will be interning with a national middle market investment bank this summer as an investment banking intern in their M&A focused group. While I am super grateful for this opportunity as it took a lot of rejection to get to this point, I know I would regret not at least seeing what else might be out there. As such, I was hoping to get some clarity as to what the process for trying to lateral to a bulge bracket or elite boutique might look like for a full time analyst role after graduation next year. I would be incredibly grateful for any advice as to what I can be doing now prior to my internship starting this summer. Are there formal applications, or is this a more discrete connection based process? Any insight would be fantastic!