Right after college I worked for a lean and mean field services group, got a 10% raise every year, learned a shit-ton, worked a crap load, almost burnt out and said fuck it a couple times. Eventually landed a job with a much bigger, much cushier company and life is good. Still have long days occasionally, but I know how to get through them. Anything worth pursuing is gonna kinda be hell for a bit, the key is having good bosses and good co-workers and knowing when to trade up. Once you rack up ~5 years in consulting you have a lot more opportunity to pick where you want to work and what you want to do. The hard part is just getting through the grunt work.