The bar is shrinking. Rights of audience for solicitors and the Woolf reforms mean less work for the junior bar, although at the very top specialist silks continue to command huge fees. The bar offers two key advantages over the solicitors' side of the profession. As a barrister, you reap the benefits of the self-employed. Some negative effects of this have been indicated above.
Income is erratic and variable and there is no such thing as sick pay or holiday pay.
But on the positive side you are responsible only to yourself and your clients. You have no boss. If the idea of responsibility appeals, the Bar can offer this from the very earliest moments. Not all the work is great, but it is rare for a pupil to get stuck with filing and bundling for months on end. A barrister can at least take his work home on a nightmare day and do it in comfort.