Former intern at a BB, now FT. Having difficulty lateraling, any advice appreciated.

For some context, I was part of the 2019 SA program in sales and trading at a top BB (think GS//MS/Citi), but unfortunately I didn't make the cut then. The reason I was given was due to no headcount on my desk (which was true to a certain extent as they didn't hire an analyst till
Two years later), but I acknowledge that my performance during the internship was average. I was nervous most of the time being in such a big bank, didn't network as aggressively as some of
my batchmates and didn't make a strong opening impression - although I did pick up later on and produced several moments of quality work. I was going through some personal stuff then
but yea, no excuse. Could have should have would have didn't. Whatever. Made some good friends and connections that I still keep in touch with.

Fast forward two years, and I'm actually a second year analyst in sales and trading. I'm doing pretty okay, would say I'm close to one of the top bucket in my batch now. The bad news is that
I'm at a bank that pays poorly far below what street is. I'm also concerned about team culture (a lot of members not pushing their weight), limited learning opportunities (I have had to self learn
a lot in my time in here), limited flow - and generally people here are not as hungry and driven as my previous shop. I will admit that low pay is a push factor as well but these other factors play a huge part as well - I feel like I've plateaued in terms of learning as my product is not that complex as well.

However, I've recently started to try and lateral and damn if it isn't hard.

Since I've started trying in September, the only interview process I've done thus far is with my former shop in a different team and it went well - the team added me on linkedin etc, but did inform me they wanted someone more senior so no skin off my nose.

I guess I'm worried because I'm hearing whispers that this is the best time it's been in a while for lateral hiring and I'm getting zip.

It seems like all the roles advertised on job portals also could be just ghost postings that are submitted by compliance and HR. Is my best and only option to keep on networking?

i recognise that I’m still in a very fortunate position, however I would really like to move to a more challenging role with a pay that is more aligned to my role. 

Any advice would be appreciated, especially if you were in a similar situation and turned it around. Thanks all and stay safe.