I like my job because
1. It's fun... most especially the landing. That never gets old!
2. Airplanes are cool.
3. It's exciting and unpredictable at times. Most pilots hate LGA, but I love most everything about airports like that, even the 3 hr taxi (since I'm getting paid.) I love the tight approaches they have you do sometimes, and even the few times I've had to go around... I would never admit it to the captain who needs to fill out the paperwork afterwards, but secretly I revel in moments like that.
4. The job provides me a sense of pride from the fact that I can fly an airplane.
6. Jumpseating privilege is awesome.
I dislike my job because
1. I don't think I get paid enough for what I do. In fact, I think we're grossly undercompensated, EVEN considering the fact that it's a fun job. The lack of fair pay makes me feel mistreated and unappreciated as an employee, which in turn makes me hate my job.
2. As long as crap doesn't hit the fan (which I hope it doesn't), the job itself is very routine, which often makes it boring although this is sometimes a very nice thing since you can just sit on your butt and read magazines (and I realize this is a runon sentence)... but at the same time, it's not very fulfilling like it would be for a police officer, doctor, etc. who make the world a better place. All you do is tranport people from one place to another, and as long as you do your job right, you made no difference. I know some people don't care about that, but personally, I wish my job involved making a difference in someone's life, even in a small way.
3. Often getting treated like utter crap from the company, esp. crew schedulers.
4. Unpredictable and unstable nature of the career.
5. Not being able to come home every night. I imagine this will only get harder as I get older and have a family.
6. The everyday BS like waiting several hours for a hotel room, not getting proper pay credit, etc.
I don't know if the regional forum is the best place to ask the pilots if the sacrifices are worth it... most of us have started to pay the dues at regionals not too long ago, hoping to get on with majors or fractionals one day... if that happens for me, obviously this will all be totally worth it to me (because I imagine it will be a lot better once I get to a major, and I also know I could end up being wrong about this). But until then, unless somone's goal is to stay at a regional forever, how can they answer your question?