Thinking About Moving to Distressed/Activist Fund

So I am a High Yield and Stressed Credit analyst at a relatively large firm (~350B) on a 3-year contract. I was hired out of undergrad and have no IB experience (I have some PE internships if you want to count those for something). As there may not be a position for me in a few years due to the contract expiring, what should I be doing to recruit for hedge funds and distressed shops? Do I have a chance or will I lose out to IB kids every time? I also went to a non-target so I can't really leverage school connections in this case. I am also thinking about asking to be sponsored for the Series 7 exam, but I am unsure if they will allow that as I am in a research role.