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3l here curious to hear from people involved in PI. Any advice on small firms, salary ranges, if you can move on after a while? Thanks....

It's hard to say. More than any other field of law, you need to be a businessperson as much as you are a lawyer. Starting out, you make very little. You only make real money when you have your own practice. That means you need to get client's, which means you need to be savvy, network, etc (which is what I mean by businessperson).

If you are able to do those things, the payoff is enormous. Successful PI lawyers make most biglaw partners look like beggars.

what about small firms? I'm not that much of a businessperson, I'd like to at least get some direction from a few older lawyers before I can make that step.

Most PI firms I know pay kinda bad on the lower end of bimodal salary. If you get in at an elite local shop you could make decent money. The money to be made in this and insurance defense field is down the road when you open your own firm. But it's a fine area. Not very complicated area of law so the growth comes from courtroom experience and building a brand name.