Already In A PE Position and Want To Lateral

What advice do fellow monkeys have on this topic?

A little background: Joined a PE arm of a MFO 1 year ago out of a Semi-Target. ~$1B AUM on the PE side. Fairly quick career progression, been promoted once and expect another coming very soon. (Small) Carry expected in a little over a year from now if/when the third promotion is expected to occur (we are growing very rapidly). Due to the lean nature of our firm, I am involved in nearly all the investments that we do. I am in a low COL city, and due to my network, it behooves me greatly to stay here. Before you ask, I want to leave because of cultural reasons (won’t go into any more detail due to anonymity). Pay is street, for a low COL city, and hours are below street.

The problem: Due to the odd nature of my situation, I have not been contacted by many headhunters and do not have an idea of how/if I should join on-cycle recruiting. Do headhunters even look at guys like me? It seems they focus on BB/MBB. Even if they did, when should I contact them and begin the process? If I did recruit, would it really be in my best interest to accept an offer given my current situation? Should I wait a year to have carry as leverage during recruitment discussions with Lower MM/MM firms during off-cycle recruiting?

Just want to gather WSO’s general thoughts, as this site has been tremendously helpful to me.

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