Big consulting firms = long hours, lots of travel, lots of exposure to "enterprise" software. A lot of actual code development is being outsourced, though there

Big consulting firms = long hours, lots of travel, lots of exposure to "enterprise" software. A lot of actual code development is being outsourced, though there are clients that require the consulting dev team to me onsite. Also, these bigger firms tend to be slow moving and very risk averse, so be aware you may not be using any cool new tools and technologies (though this all depends on the clients/project/management team etc.) I would not consider these large firms to be thought leaders in the industry as it takes so long for them to vet new technologies and methodologies (at least in my experience).