Internal Lateraling Guide

Basically, the first thing you need to be prioritizing is getting the return offer. Many reputable banks won't look at you without one and that should take up most of your time/focus. If your processes for FT don't work out, that's fine if you bag your return offer. If you truly want to leave your group, you can leave after 6 months. 

The key thing to FT recruiting is networking/scouting. Since there's no defined spots (unlike SA) and it's mostly based on intern return rates and bank staffing needs, you need to cast a wide net. In an environment like this past August and probably into next year, there will be groups looking to plug holes since people try to move around, but not every place you talk to will have spots.

There might be some patterns with which shops tend to be easier/more likely to have spots - many of the top Rx groups will have spots because their SA programs are poaching grounds for buyside analyst programs. That said, I think it's a mistake to be thinking in these terms. You want to target places that you are genuinely interested in and can make a compelling pitch to. 

This means you need to be proactive in making a list of the places you are targeting (and would take over your return) before or early in the summer and start reaching out to folks towards the midpoint of your internship. It helps if you have prior connections with them: for example, I targeted people who I talked to at places I had superdays with but didn't get the SA offer. Being early helps because it demonstrates interest and you will have had enough time at your internship to talk through what you've been up to. Towards the end of the summer, there will be a torrent of interns like yourself spamming networking emails so getting ahead of it increases your success likelihood.

Once you've had conversations with banker(s) at a given shop, you can reach out towards the end of your internship and ask them if they have a sense of what their class looks like. This can be frustrating because sometimes even the staffer just doesn't know - they have to wait on their own interns telling them whether they are coming back or not.

Again, cannot emphasize enough, you ideally want to have multiple things going at once because things move quickly and time is valuable. You want to be armed with an Excel sheet with all the places you've talked to during the summer and ready to reach back out and find out where potential interviews might be.  

A key thing to bring up at this point in your correspondence with your target firms is that you have gotten your return offer (presuming you have) and when that return offer expires. Not all places will/can accommodate you, but people will try, particularly if you have shown well in the networking process. This can help accelerate the urgency of their internal timeline, or they might just communicate to you that they won't be able to meet it, at which point you can focus your attention elsewhere. 

If a bank assesses that they have a spot and you've done your job networking, it will be a quick process. Some places might post about opportunities as they come up, but for the most part, a hiring team will have a list of candidates that have networked and are ready to be interviewed. Things move very fast. I had multiple places where I went from first round to offer decision within less than two days. You typically have less time to accept the offer as well. The assumption is you will accept quickly since the whole reason for conducting the process was you judged the bank to be a better opportunity than your SA return. 

In my estimation and experience, the majority of places will fill up quickly around (or even before) when interns have to accept/decline their spots in mid-late August. However, some places will start later and random spots do open up throughout the year from people reneging. 

Hope this helps and happy to answer follow ups. 

Edit: My dumbass didn't properly read your question. Idk about internal mobility lol