Mate, I dont have to tell you this, or maybe I do, there is some quality advice here particularly from Beazlebub, Redsnail and Genghis the Engineer.
I have had similar thoughts to Beazlebub. I have been contributing and reading these forums for nearly 13 years, sometimes through people here and even colleagues in the professional pilot world I am amazed on peoples perception of the job, and what they want to achieve from it.
The problem you face is knowing and understanding exactly you want from the profession. I also had a number of jobs before I settled in the sharp end of a jet, but they were all stepping stones to getting there. To this day I still feel very privileged to be able to make a living from something I really enjoy.
Of course, now, after working with people who have come into this job from other angles I can understand peoples frustration, but dont necessarily agree with it. For example, and with all due respect, guys who enter this world with ease, straight from college, no life experience and responded to an advert in The Times, which was presented with a stunning view out of a B747-400 flight deck at dusk and never even gave a thought to aviation, end up in the job, because they thought it was a cool thing to do. Well, as the guys have mentioned, once the novelty wears off, the job becomes routine, they start to recent getting out of bed at 4am, or doing night shifts, having constant roster changes where they cant plan anything, being tested every 6 months etc etc, could find themselves hating the job. And now with the airlines wanting more for less they start to getting bitter and pissed off. However, on saying all of that, these guys/gals dont know any different.
Sometimes when you are older, and you have a slightly mature slant of the matter, you will take a lot more into consideration. I always look back at what I have done as a unique path to career happiness, even though I hated most of the jobs I had! But, they provided me with the money for my training and make me appreciate what I have now as a profession. I also learned a tremendous amount along the way and developed key skills in a lot of areas. All good stuff for developing yourself as a person.
I still think it is a great job.