General career progression for a first year PE analyst?

Same situation.
Valedictorian & top grades at target - joined a small PE fund which was really just an equity investment vehicle for the two partners . No room for carry / co-invest or major salary progression but I didn’t mind as it was a small team and thought I would get good experience. Got sick of it and went into banking for four months - left then as I just hated the culture , brain numbing work and the frequency of assholes . Joined back to my little PE fund and took a major haircut on pay. Stayed for 1.5 years and did some very interesting deals. I was the first junior they ever hired in a very small team so was pretty high up the food chain in a few transactions (not massive transactions albeit but I really got to see the coal face in terms of how deals are completed) .

Got offered a new role at a different PE fund that is just starting out - again, I’m the first junior at the fund and only got the job because of one of the GP’s close relationship with me (he was head of new investments at the first fund). Awesome opportunity- comp is excellent with carry / co-invest for juniors (to get this at 24 is unheard of)

Long story short- I think it’s a good career to start in PE . If you can also supplement with exams (accountancy, CFA) , it adds even more to your CV - try and be on as many calls as you can and appear to be older than you actually are. If you stay on the right side of people, opportunities will open up for you because you have more direct transferable experience having worked in PE for your whole career essentially. Will they be for MF’s or other famous boutiques ? Probably not because they like the traditional IB training route but that is okay. Sometimes there is unique opportunities available in small teams that don’t get posted up here. Try and get some good deal experience and this will cancel out any misgivings people may have about the prestige of a firm letting in PE analysts .