[sli]

Yep. OP's post sounds like I could have written it, and it's because small companies are absolute hell. You won't get benefits, you won't get health insurance, you won't get vacation days, your pay goes down below livable levels, and your proximity to clients shrinks dramatically. Investors have all the power and small dev shop owners worship them to the detriment of their employees.

Switching to a small shop will make the burnout exponentially worse.

[Aeolun]

Depends entirely on where you go to work. I've only ever worked in decent (actually fantastic) dev shops. Of course, pay was still not amazing, but it was full of smart and motivated people.

[daliusd]

I got lucky then :-)