3. What are some of your favorite things of the job?
Can't say I'm a fan of airline flying (repetitive routes, same type of aircraft the entire time with same qualities and characteristics, usually fairly fixed weather patterns even depending on if you stay in a certain region. I'm more a fan of the stuff I did outside of that, such as landing on snow and ice more than a few times (preceded by the "low pass" to inspect the surface). The aerobatic flying I do (hopefully I get to continue this). Ferrying new aircraft on VFR flight plans through mountainous terrain (planning, more planning, contingency planning, and executing a well-thought-out plan). Using one aircraft to ferry aircraft parts to another aircraft and having to figure out how to make said aircraft parts barely-fit into the larger aircraft. Making short field landing approaches in high headwind conditions where you touch down at a walking-(ground)speed. Having a check pilot tell you "nice landing" (passengers have no idea what a nice landing is).
4. Do you get healthcare benefits and discounts on flying?
Yes and yes, but the flying benefits are usually better than the healthcare ones. Realize that there are a lot of married airline pilots trying to make it work at the regional level, they are earning 25-35K and are essentially not the main income provider for their family, so while this "works" for them, be careful about the benefits, because if you don't have anything else, it could be bad.
5. What is your personal favorite airline to work for?
Problem is most of us have only worked for one, a few older pilots have made it to the "big airlines", in which case they feel their sacrifices justified. If you do get to the big airlines and get a few years in, quality of life can be decent. It's a long way's to get there, and per my previous post, a lot of pilots are never getting there these days. There are a few regionals that are "acceptable" in this sense, but they are few and far between. They also usually require a complete commitment, otherwise you always "start over" from day one whenever you change airlines, so you have to go through the process again of being a first officer, then a captain, or possibly moving to a different type of airplane, etc. The seniority always resets are zero, that's important to remember. Can you get your "dream job" with your "dream airline" right off the bat?
6. Is it a really stressful job?
I like the poster that said after a while you realize what you can't and can control. You do your best in that area you have responsibility over. If you are the type of person that can complete projects requiring intense focus, then you are probably fine. Pilot training tends to push people in this direction the entire time. Realize there may be stress factors like making bills, commuting (from where you live to your airline's base), rest cycles, and other issues that make it stressful, but again it comes down to the person and their situation.
7. About how much do you invest in becoming a pilot?
It depends on if you are including a degree in there or not, also if you are including interest paid on loans (most people aren't including this, but it's not uncommon for an 75,000 loan to cost 125,000 in the end).
8. Do you get to spend time with family and doing other hobbies?
Money is the limiting factor, you get a fair amount of time off, but with nonrev travel you can go places as long as you can keep it cheap and the space is available. That's a nice perk. It's not like you are in the military and working all the time (but in the military they were pretty good about giving us most every weekend off, with the requisite 4-day holiday weekends and making up for "extra duty time" with other days off at times). It's best when you are off reserve and ave a line, then you know what is going on a lot better and have bigger amounts of time that you can plan to do other stuff in.