Comparing smaller Credit/CLO funds?

Figured there would be more info on this forum.

As some of you many know, there seems to be a lot of recruiting going on in credit right now, particularly in performing at smaller shops. I'm thinking about taking my next step to a smaller shop where theres more career upside and growth, and have been in the process for a few roles at smaller credit shops, primarily CLO managers. Any advice for evaluating/tiering these opportunities? Especially considering that a lot of these are Tier 2/3 places where there is not a lot of public information, how best would it be to compare these beyond the people itself/what they tell me? Is there any downside to "settling" at a smaller shop vs. a larger/scaled our "Tier 1", particularly for someone with < 5 years of work experience?

I would assume the obvious would be if they have other strategies (distressed/opportunistic, private) in tandem, performance (although seems to be hard to find data on this and everyone just says that theirs is "good"), and how they run their credit process.