Welcome to EH

The way I see it is if you are really interested in pen testing, should it be all about the money? Yes in this world you need money to live but I am very much into finding a career that I enjoy and would allow me to live a life without strugging... hell if I could earn £350 per day as a pen tester I would be the happiest man alive! I am currently a pen tester not even earning half of that a day!!!

Also in order to be a pen tester you have to understand a bit about several areas of IT including networking, programming, databases etc.. so although you might not become a specialist in each area it will provide you with a good foundation should you decide to move on in future.

As for pentesting in future I dont see it becoming extinct but growing more and more as technology takes control of our every day lives.  Security is essential and every company needs to know that they have taken the correct precautions to be as secure as they can. Pentesting is just a small part of the security process but helps to provide assurance that security controls are working and in place...