I have an interesting take on this. I had completed 2 years of medicine and then switched into anesthesiology after a spot opened up at the same institution. It was a rather impulsive decision TBH. My medicine program was malignant and frankly I felt that I wasn't super prepared to be on my own one year from then and definitely wasn't interested in specializing, so I switched to the "grass is greener" perceived reality of anesthesia. The change was a shocker. Anesthesia is super intense in a big academic center. Emergent airways, transferring ICU pts to and from OR, procedures in situations where you have to perform under pressure "or else", and just the high acuity overall was pretty hardcore unlike what I thought it was going to be like going in. I was part of a tragic situation with some unsupervised case and was part of a medical error and afterwards decided this probably wasn't the best path for me. I ended up going back to medicine in a new place and the change has been incredible. Going back with the new mindset is all the difference. I didn't feel like a "real doctor" in anesthesia because you don't form any bond with your patients. There is no continuity. I know that is appealing for some people but to me it was seriously lacking in a major aspect of what I do enjoy about medicine - being someone's doctor, talking to patients, their families, managing their plan of action. Also, with anesthesia, I had never felt like someone's "bitch" ever prior in residency until then. The way you are disrespected by surgeons and basically called a glorified nurse was hard to swallow for me. It's the only specialty where you are basically working under another doctor and that's kinda hard to swallow b/c it's the "surgeon's patient" from their viewpoint. Overall, it just depends on what you want in life/career and your personality that will dictate what you like. I love medicine now and am on track to do hospitalist medicine and couldn't be happier.