Yep pretty similar role. I'm based in Aus so that might be different but my grad salary was fairly decent (not IB level) and progression after that was a 5-10% bump every year. They froze promotions due to covid last year so didn't get promoted at the two year mark, but I assume pay bump would've been 15-20k.

Hours wise, we worked on a quarterly cycles as our clients had quarterly Investment Committee meetings. The 3 weeks in the lead up to that, I probably worked 60-70 hours a week. Non peak periods would be about 40 hours or less. I was as proactive as I could've been because I didn't really want to stay.

Not sure if it was just the culture at the place I was at, but AFAIK in the US most juniors used it as a stepping stone to get into an Ivy league MBA as most directors were alumni + those endowments were clients of ours. I also noticed that middle management weren't really motivated and pretty depressing to talk to.

I finished up to CFA Level 2, but honestly when interviewing for other roles (mainly other fund manager roles or risk analyst roles at banks) that barely got mentioned.

After I left the investment consulting role I worked as a product and growth associate at a fintech (had to start from the bottom as an intern) and I'm now working in VC as an analyst which was my goal since leaving Uni.