Mate, I could rant for hours on this subject. I chose to follow the Ops route after spending two tours in a tower and realising that Ops and not ATC was what flicked my switch.
What always irritated me was that without fail ALL air traffickers would view you as some sort of ATC failure, and many would talk down to you as if you were some half wit.
Ops subsidise ATC for manpower, without our people ATC would cease to function. Furthermore the whole training and career development in the trade is geared up for ATC, Ops get nothing even the basic FOA course is ATC centric. I grew weary of hearing the complaints from the newly graduated FOAs surrounding their lack of ops training. Without fail I would regularly be told that they had not been trained in this or that. Go to the muppets at Shawbs and all you got was 'We don't want to blind them with science'.............
I have gone because the prospect of becoming the PA to the SATCO was an insult and did not offer the appropriate career development. That's not an Ops job, it's an admin post and should be filled accordingly.