Before engineering I was doing community (economic) development as a program manager. Got into tech through a network connection that trusted me & was building 3 full stack websites for clients, needing someone to manage the projects. It paid more than the other gig so I took it and also learned to code during the time on my own and through a bootcamp paid for by them. Two years in, an engineer on the team (of 2) left for Amazon and I took over as a SWE. Now I’m job searching & not sure if I want to go for SWE or PM. I’m good at both but find SWE more stressful because I’m a bit of a perfectionist & will spend too much time fixing bugs and / or optimizing. I also like the interaction with clients and gathering requirements & building sprints. Also think I work well as a PM because I’m pretty good at communicating and building trust with people. During my SWE job search I haven’t really felt excited at all about any of the roles I applied to more of just viewed it as work and potentially stressful. I kind of viewed that as a red flag but kept applying / interviewing. But think maybe I only got 1 offer I turned down because I don’t really want it. Thing is I like to code. It just stresses me out. So maybe the answer is clear, but Blind, what do you think? SWE or PM? TC: 100 YOE 2-3
SWE - op - you said “ I’m a bit of a perfectionist & will spend too much time fixing bugs and / or optimizing. “ Not sure this is a great PM trait. They have to be more nuanced and manage many priorities and say “no”. PMs are more pragmatic than perfectionists.
I’m fine saying no. I’m also pragmatic. What I’ve noticed is that when I’m working on code I take it too seriously & it stresses me out. It might have just been the project I was on though as there were a ton of bugs & I kept hearing from the client so when I transitioned into SWE I spent a lot of time / energy fixing them & no bug reports since!