My buddy left the airline world to be a controller - He loves his job . He maintains his CFI and gets local 135 gigs on the side. He's home everyday - Wheres shorts and a tshirt to work and makes better money and has better benies than me. Not to say there arent any challenges in the ATC world but hey, at least there arent gonna be 4,000 controllers on the street in the next year like there will be pilots in the airline biz.....