Breaking into London AM

I'm a 3rd-year (of 4 years) Economics student looking to break into London AM. I go to a "high" semi-target (not London, Warwick or Oxbridge). My main focus is research in equities but I'm "open" to fixed income.

Currently, I have experience in an analyst role in an Alternatives (HFoF mainly) division at a mid-sized AM/PB. I'm there for my placement year (aka year in industry). The work has mainly been keeping up with performance, reporting and scouting new funds at conferences. I've learnt a lot but not much translates into direct investment in equities or other asset classes.

I have a summer internship (more and more looking virtual) lined up at $100M L/S Fund which is great! This should give me good experience in primary research and the investing process.

I was planning to take my CFA L1 in June, this has obviously been postponed to Dec or later...

I'm planning on reaching out to people on LinkedIn at a variety of firms to do some informational interviews. Do you think that would be effective in 1. standing out? 2. applications?

What else can I be doing to set me up for a grad role here? Should I even aim for a grad role here or do something else first? What is the landscape like for AM in London? I know the big long-onlys have grad schemes but what else is there?

Many questions I know, please answer what you can!