Breaking into Physical Commodity Trading FT - Graduating Senior w/ Finance Background Struggling to Find a Way In

Hi everyone,
Graduating this May from a target (for banking) university in the north-east US with a degree in economics, minors in math and data science, and decent GPA. My background is a bit non-linear for the path I'm targeting: I have experience at a decent infrastructure private equity fund and at a long-only boutique asset manager focused on real assets and resource equities. The research role at the LO is where I got real exposure to physical commodity markets and trading houses, and it's what pushed me toward physical trading as a career goal rather than staying on the equities side.

The issue is that physical commodity trading doesn't recruit like IB or even S&T does. There's no universal timeline, the major houses run small grad programs with fairly opaque hiring, and a lot of the entry-level roles at mid-size firms seem to be filled through relationships or on rolling timelines with no public-facing process. Also, it seems that not being in Texas can put you at a significant disadvantage in this field. I've been networking directly with people at smaller houses and applying where I can find open processes, but the pipeline feels a lot thinner than anything I encountered recruiting for more mainstream finance roles earlier on. To make things harder, I feel like I've already missed the boat on most of the more structured grad programs (TDPs), the ones with actual application cycles and defined entry points, and am now left trying to figure out how to break in through less conventional channels without a clear roadmap for doing so. I know that middle office roles like scheduling, trade finance, ops, etc. are common ways onto a trading seat for people who didn't do a TDP, but I am also having difficulty finding these roles, or at least entry-level versions of them.  

A few things that might be relevant context: I have an EU passport, am fluent in French and Portuguese, and my long-term goal is to end up in a major European trading hub (Geneva or London probably) working on the commercial side of a large house, ideally in metals but I'm flexible. In the near term, though, I'm based in the New York area and would prefer to start my career here before eventually making the move abroad. If I can't break in directly out of undergrad, my current plan is to do a European masters with a commodity trading focus and recruit from there. That said, I'd obviously prefer to find something now and skip the extra year if possible.

A few things I'm trying to figure out:

• For someone with my background, what types of entry-level commodities roles are actually realistic to land in the next few months? Commercial analyst, freight, origination, scheduling, something else? Which segments of the market are worth targeting beyond the obvious big names, particularly in the north-east US?
• Is the European masters route actually necessary for me to break into the Geneva or London trading scene, or is it possible to get there from a US-based role if you're at the right company and building the right experience?
• Any advice on finding smaller and mid-tier trading houses that recruit on a rolling basis and are worth reaching out to directly?

Appreciate any input, especially from anyone who's gone through a similar path or works on the commercial side.