FT IB recruiting networking

Hi, currently a rising junior at a college in nyc. My current plan is to land a buyside offer for FT (hf/pe). However, in the event that doesn’t happen, my plan is to try for FT ib recruiting.

Right now I have a offer in hand from a family office for the summer and have a couple of interviews lines up and a friend also said he’ll put in a strong rec at an activist fund. However, since I’m an international student, I’m unsure if any HF would be readily willing to sponsor visa upon graduating (I’m currently on the F1 visa with stem opt extension option as well)

Because of that, and because I didn’t recruit fot ib for SA 19 (didn’t network on time and changed interests really late), I’m planning to recruit for FT in hopes of landing an offer at a BB/EB. However, because of all these deadlines and apps being pushed early, and also because FT recruiting will be really really hard (since most spots will be filled with SA guys), does anybody have tips on how to approach FT networking? How early should I start? Whom should I first target for networking (analysts/assoc/MDs)? Any tips from people who went through this would be helpful.

Want to go ahead and give my best shot at this since it’ll be hard, so any help will be appreciated