There is a large source of information on such questions; it's called "the pre-allo forum."
It may interest you to know that derm actually ranks pretty low in terms of physician satisfaction (the highest field in terms of self-reported physician satisfaction is actually pediatric surgery, which requires 2 years of q2 call in fellowship, and where attendings work 80+ hour weeks routinely). I attribute this to three things [please bear in mind these are *generalizations,* and everyone will have a favorite uncle or college roommate who contradicts this]:
1) few dermatologists are attracted to the field of dermatology, prima facie, and actually spend their days quite bored and hating seeing patients.
2) most went into it for lifestyle and money reasons. By most I mean 99%. There will always be other jobs out there that make more money, and it's not a perfect 9-to-5. They suffer from serious grass-is-greener syndrome.
3) most were bright people who didn't really know what they were getting into when they went to med school (family pressures and expectations, too much Grey's, you name it). They were dissatisfied with medicine in general and saw dermatology residency as an escape. They remain unsatisfied.
Being very competitive does not necessarily mean that a field is very satisfying. Some highly competitive fields have good satisfaction scores-- ortho, radiology and neurosurgery are some. Others, including ENT and ophtho, do not.
PS all of this information is from the University of Buffalo's physician surveys.
C'mon blonde, why all the hate? Show poor dermies some love.
Having just sat through dermatology rounds during the past hour, I came to appreciate the fact that the women in dermatology rank at least two standard deviations above average residents IN TERMS OF LOOKS. Sadly, most are married or engaged.
Don't belittle specialties other specialties so lightheartedly. 99% of dermies are in it for money, you say? I don't think it's any different than any other specialty.
And I highly doubt that dermies are as unhappy as you make them to be. At least they must be hiding it well, because of all the smiley chitchat I always see whenever I go over cases with them. The surgeons just grunt and nod.