I could think of more stressful jobs than ATC.... how bout a secondary school teacher, now just coming out of school myself, i have seen many teachers "dissapear" from breakdowns etc.... the youth embarrasses me..
I will tell you about it soon as I am about to make the happy change from education to ATC
Money isn't everything but getting twice the salary of a secondary teacher (starting 19k then 23k) sure could justify a bit of stress.
Teaching is hard work because you have to deal with very mixed and unbalanced levels of ability, behaviour and interest. And the only tools that can deal with it seem to be classified as non-PC or discriminating...
Imagine the College of ATC where trainees aren't selected, it's open to everyone and you can't get rid of the ones that don't perform or don't achieve, or aren't even interested !
(I expect some obvious replies to that )
good luck