The problems are manifold here, sadly. (1) This is a forum for neurologists, who are neither neurosurgeons or ENTs. (2) Everyone on SDN seems to think that neurosurgeons are chiseled heroes who work 100 hours a week until they're 80, and then do fiducials until they die. (3) ENT careers can take so many forms its impossible to prognosticate for you.
I would:
1. Ask on the NS and ENT forums, where people with first-hand experience might be able to help.
2. Remember that once your training is done, every career is choose-your-0wn-adventure. I personally know neurosurgeons who work 50-60 hours a week with limited call, others who do mostly research and have a very limited operative scope, and still others who are in the OR 3-4 days a week doing cases from 7AM to midnight. So its hard to answer your question. Money tends to vary with procedural load.
3. ENT practice covers a lot of ground, from mostly outpatient practice with office-based procedures, to mostly surgical practice with long and complicated surgeries. And everywhere in between. You could do Beverly Hills rhinoplasties, or you could work at Shriners. In some settings, ENT and neurosurgery work hand in glove, particularly in some co-practices that manage vestibular schwannomas and other CP-angle and skull-base surgeries. In those settings, the ENT handles the approach and all of the extra-dural components of the surgery. Pretty cool team-based approach.
Good luck.
