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What? you can't be both?

Well good luck in your endeavor. Goodness knows you have a font of valuable information from people here.

However, have you decided on what sect of Judaism you're going to be rabbi'ing in?

Wow! How exciting for you! Keep with it, and good luck.

I'd definitely love it if you were my rabbi.

First of all, I want to wish DD good luck and strength. Second, I want to just share with everyone what I shared with him -- not the specifics, which are personal for DD, but the ideas that I think couldhelp anyone else who might consider this route.

1. Rabbis are rabbis 24/7/365.
Vacations, hospital stays, town meetings and other political forums, family dinners, fancy dinners out -- everywhere you go, you're a rabbi. People will see you as a rabbi first, and a private person second (if at all). People will ask for your halachic advice and personal advice. They'll also be watching you closely to see how you behave with others, whether you're bringing honor to Israel and Hashem or if they'll be disappointed in anything that you do or say.

You're never able to just take off the mantle of the rabbinate and be a regular guy/gal. It'll be harder to do certain things that other people can do with relative anonymity: go to a doctor or therapist for any personal issues, buy a self-help book at a public book store, date, even just have an "off" day or a cranky moment. People will look. People will notice. People will gossip. So be darned sure you can stand living in the public eye 24/7, and be darned sure you're never going to do anything you wouldn't want your entire congregation to know about.

2. Rabbis are Jewish 24/7/365, too.
Every single morning of his life, a rabbi gets up at the crack of dawn to go participate in prayer with a minyan. A Jewish man is obligated to pray three times a day, but most don't really get with a minyan every single day. But a rabbi must, with few exceptions, because every other man looks to him for an example of how to be a good Jew. Any day he's not there, some man can think, "Well, if he can take off, so can I," and then there's a day when they don't get a full minyan and therefore can't pray all the prayers. So the nine men who showed up start to think it's not worth their time to try, either, and suddenly your little community is floundering. A rabbi's commitment has to be renewed daily, by daily example.

Also, a rabbi's example makes a great deal of difference when it comes to kashrut. If people see their rabbi sipping a glass of ice water in a non-kosher restaurant, which is technically permissible, they may think it's permitted to eat in that restaurant, so they'll do it, and they'll be in transgression. The same if they see him driving on Shabbat -- which is permitted if it could save a life, but they won't know that he's saving a life, they'll just think "Ah, the rabbi drove last Shabbat, so it's okay if I drive this Shabbat, too." You have to remember at all times that your congregants aren't all knowledgeable. Some of them are still learning, and rather than ask direct questions, most will just look at your behaviors and pattern themselves after you. Sometimes they'll make assumptions, and those assumptions can be wrong or incomplete. Even when you're doing the right thing, they can misinterpret what they see and be steered wrong. A rabbi must not only do the right thing, but be seen to do the right thing.

3. A rabbi isn't just someone who gives speeches on Saturdays.
A pulpit rabbi does give speeches on Saturdays, but he also gives them on Friday nights and on holidays (two to four times a day, mind you, on Shabbat and holidays). He can also be a chaplain in the military, a hospital, a prison, a teacher or chaplain at a Jewish school, a shochet (ritual slaughterer), a mashgiach (kashrut supervisor in a restaurant or food preparation facility), or simply a fellow who's considered learned in Jewish law but doesn't actually make a job of it. There are a dozen ways to be a rabbi. It doesn't necessarily come with a congregation -- or an income. Some of the brokest people I know are rabbis, and yes, I consider it a shame, because traditionally a Jewish community is supposed to support its scholars simply for the benefit of having scholars among themselves.

4. A rabbi can't depend on English.
Jewish texts are written in ancient Hebrew, Biblical (slightly newer) Hebrew, modern Hebrew, Aramaic, Amharic, Greek, Spanish, Ladino, Arabic, Russian, German, Yiddish, English, and every other language in which Jews have spoken or written. Some definitive Jewish works are written in these languages, and translation loses something. A rabbi needs to be fluent in several of these languages, and have at least a passing familiarity with others. That's a LOT of study.

Speaking of study, rabbinic schools are not state-funded. Instead of costing a couple thousand per academic quarter (or semester, trimester) -- instead of under $10K a year, most rabbinic schools can come as much as five or even ten times that amount, depending on the quality of the school and its location. The money you'll spend getting through rabbinical school could easily buy a nice house in most cities, or at least a sweet downpayment. And remember, being ordained is no guarantee of finding a pulpit or other source of income as a rabbi.

Hmm.... Well, Divash would be a better person to answer this, but in the meantime I'll add in my $0.02, but feel free to ignore it. Rabbis are just ordinary people, but what makes them so amazing to me is the faith and effort it takes to become a rabbi. That proves to me that these aren't actually ordinary people- they had a strong heart. Rabbis worked so hard for something they believed in knowing that the salary isn't great and there's often many many challenges; it's similar to teachers (since rabbis are teachers, too), but it's also teaching something that not everybody agrees on. You have to be firm enough in how you interpret Judaism, but also flexible enough to deal with new issues and possibly correct your prior standings.

I don't think anybody thinks rabbis are perfect since we are all just human in the end, but I know that the vast majority of rabbis have more sense and intelligence than I do- it just comes after their years and years of study and dedication. Before I stop rambling, nobody says that you have to feel rabbis are perfect- I certainly don't. But people who help others feel closer to G-d definitely rank highly on my list of respect.