Thinking about moving to PM but a bit hesitant
I've been a SWE for around 2.5 years now and thinking about my future. Overall, I love tech and building cool things that help people, that's why I became an engineer. However I've come to realize that I don't necessarily care that much about the deep and specific technical implementation of a solution. Rather I've generally been more interested in the businesses themselves and the impact of the tech/product on people.
Additionally as I've gone through my few years as a SWE, I feel like I'm supposed to get super deep in the technical aspects of the work so I'm considering other roles in tech the may play better into my strengths like I think PM may.
In terms on moving to PM from SWE, I'm concerned about the comparative amount of jobs available (I'm in NYC), salary growth, and job resiliency to economic downturns (i.e. are PMs the first to go when cuts are made essentially). Can anyone validate or refute these?
In the end based on my situation, should I try and make the switch?
comments
Pay would be less than swe, and less work, but it is a lot of talking endless meetings and follow ups
I get from a dev perspective you just see the last requirement document and none of the front end work that justifies why you should be building something so it feels like I could get it done in a day.
At higher levels all my engineering peers have opportunities to influence business direction through their knowledge of the technology. They also get to talk directly with customers and do presentations and mentor other engineers. It’s not the same as a PM but IMO it’s better in many ways.
EM is also an option and many engineering managers go on to be general managers and be involved with business strategy.
My advice would be to stick it out at least 3 more years and see how your role changes. At 2.5 YOE you’re still doing a lot of pure execution work and your job will look very different with more experience.
They’re in this fine line between PM and development. Too valuable to get rid of, because you have the technical depth but you also know how to converse with customers, great estimation, gel well with other teams etc