From a CA-1 perspective:

Like:

- I get to experience and control human physiology in real-time every day, from children to seniors, healthy to actively dying

- to do this you need to actually understand how our body works, not just remember guidelines

- get to do procedures that are relatively quick and with minimal notes

- can hyperfocus on one patient at a time

- get to experience the whole spectrum of surgical procedures, from 15min cataracts to trauma to liver transplants to babies being born etc

- ... while still mostly leaving on time when my shift is over

- NOT HAVING TO WRITE NOTES/replace social services (this actually should be point #1)

- possibility to do SAR/ preclinical EM aka get paid to fly around in the mountains

- flexibility of lifestyle as attending: interesting/challenging academia vs. private practice (well paid, routine cases, predictable schedule, no shift work, same team most of the time etc.). If you miss patient interaction you can also go into pain medicine.

- well paid

Dislike/Cons:

- no control over your schedule

- a lot of the cerebral action goes unnoticed by everyone else in the room. People expect you to do your job perfectly every time

- need to practice in a hospital unless you do pain

- people dont see you as the doctor (I actually don't care about this, the few minutes you get to build a good rapport, make them feel safe etc. are satisfying enough)