Smaller shops are a huge hit-or-miss minefield in my experience. Some of them can be rockstars, but those rockstars are typically already 100% engaged with a long-term client or are on the road to be acquired by Deloitte et al. On the other hand, most of the non-rockstars might as well just be staffing agencies that aren't any better than hiring a random part time dev from craiglist.
The sweet spot in my experience is the mid-size consulting companies, like around ~500 employees or so, because you know that they are at least good enough to stay in business long enough to grow, but they also aren't yet big enough to be bureacratic, incentive-warped, soul-sucking machines like Deloitte/Accenture.
The sweet spot in my experience is the mid-size consulting companies, like around ~500 employees or so, because you know that they are at least good enough to stay in business long enough to grow, but they also aren't yet big enough to be bureacratic, incentive-warped, soul-sucking machines like Deloitte/Accenture.