Need advice navigating/Are doors closing?

I have a chance to be a financial advisor (shitty sales job, I know) but they will be sponsoring me for my series 7 and 6. The guy in my network is really successful at it and says he can throw me clients in his book if I start. Thing is, recruiter says to write down hundreds of people—family and friends—to call and potentially sell to. I really don’t want to be that guy that cold calls old friends and family just to sell to them. I’m thinking of taking the licenses and running if there’s no clawback. I could try to work off of the guy in my network’s book, but should I mention that to the recruiter to avoid cold calling people I know? This firm has an opening for PE associate, which is what I really want to do. I was thinking of ways to make an internal move into that role but they want relevant work experience for it, which I don’t have. Maybe my best option is to look around for another job that requires FINRA licenses. I don’t have a good GPA and I graduated this spring. I’m 26 right now. I feel like if I wait any longer for something in finance I’m going to look like damaged goods and my chances of getting into either PE or IB are pretty much nonexistent. How should I navigate this?