Distressed HF to Distressed PE

Incoming analyst at a special sits credit hf out of school. Since I won't be doing through the normal ib process, I'm a bit worried about getting in head hunters system. Obviously not looking to make a move immediately, but I've been interested in distressed pe and would like to do that 2-3 years down the line.

I've heard that ib -> pe -> hf is usually the path but it's much harder to do hf -> pe. Does anybody know or have experience with this? How should I approach head hunters here? Should I just invite them to connect on linkedin? Should I send a note with it? I'm not really sure what would be the best approach here.