PE HH Recruiting

Hello - Starting my second year as an analyst in IB, focused on software. I've been starting to have a few HH's reach out to me over the last couple months for PE/VC opportunities. I'm interested in making the switch to PE but I'm not to familiar with the recruiting process. I've been going through the relevant threads in the forums to get read up on this.

Was hoping someone could provide a short explanation on when recruiting usually picks up (understand there's off/on-cycle recruiting). Also, in regards to HH firms, what's the consensus on reaching out directly to associates at these firms to set up intro calls? I've read that's totally fine to do, but was curious if there's a best practice way of reaching out.

Any links to discussions that address this is totally fine also.

Thanks for the help,