I like more competitive environments too, but when life hits you out of nowhere, as it surely will, you may come to regret working in one of these environments when it happens. It happened to me - a close family member died and they wouldn't approve any time off to attend to it, then I had a major surgery, barely got approved for the day of the event and no recovery time, so I was forced to take over a month of unpaid leave. I was basically forced out after that point, for things that are pretty normal for someone to be dealing with. You're not going to be young forever.