coneyisland, maybe you're a "natural" & found it easy but a 50% success rate from start of course to end of field training with most of the attrition in the college would indicate otherwise for many trainees.
It takes two to make an agreement & when there's no penalty for one party creatively interpreting that agreement, it doesn't matter how tight you make it. Management don't have to be like that but choose to be so. They don't have to be so combative & deliberately slow to negotiate agreements but they choose to be so. And it costs us big time - pay is frozen & there's no backdating to make up for it.
Come back when you've been through that cycle a few times & see if your rosy view is still there. It wears a bit thin once you've seen it repeated despite promises "this time will be different".
I think you'll find most controllers did something else before coming to ATC. It's certainly the case in my area. That said a lot have been controlling for a long time.