There are various reasons why people go into the rabbinate. They are both positive and negative.

Positive Motivations

Some people have this deep need to educate and to lead a Jewish community and they feel that they can do their part in order to continue Jewish traditions in the world and to inspire people to enhance and increase their Jewish observance. This is undoubtedly a positive and good thing to do and it is to be commended.

Negative Reasons

Some rabbis choose their profession out of a search for pride. They want people to respect them.

Others feel insecure in their lives and they have a need to prove to themselves that they do have some worth. They have to convince themselves that they can do it.

Some people have a need to join the rabbinate because of pressure from parents, pressure from classmates in their yeshiva, or pressure from their teachers in a yeshiva.

Some people feel that they can counsel others. However, without the proper background, training, personality, many of them cannot counsel well. This could be problematic because they are in a position in which people do ask for their advice.

Personal glory is another motivation. The rabbinate is a position in which a person can study and achieve glory as a result. Other professions do have restrictions, and so does the rabbinate, but there are fewer restrictions in the rabbinate.

A politician can get voted out of his position. A CEO would have to prove objective skill and move a company in the right direction.

The rabbinate in some cases may have a simpler job in that he only has to make his congregants happy.

Note to myself: Move the previous data text into a file called RGlory.html

Unfortunately, it is clear that there are more negative reasons than positive for entering the rabbinate.