Career Conundrum - Move into management or stay where I am?

This is a no brainer. You aren't passionate about your current gig, would like to be in management and have been offered something that would pay you 40% more over your current gig and be management?

Worst advice request ever? I think so.

 

Follow the money.

 

I'd take the PM job. I'm in the same boat as you, been in IT for 14 years and lately have considered management (which I never thought I would.) I'm not quite ready to go that direction and don't know if I ever will, but I can understand wanting to switch things up. At the very least, having PM experience with an already solid technical background should do nothing but help your future prospects.

 

I don't see where the indecision lies, from the information you have provided it sounds like a no brainer that you take the management job.

 

New goals, new experience, having to learn to lead, more money...I really don't see how this is a hard decision?

 

40% pay-raise? I'm sorry, what was your question again?

 

Yeah seems pretty obvious.

Become a manager ----> hire CFers.

 

Didn't you start a thread recently about being a bouncer?

 

Money over everything.

 

Here's the question: Do I want to be the manager or do I want that loser over there to be the manager? The best managers (the ones with the chance of turning into leaders) probably answer the latter with more enthusiasm than the former and that is what gets some good people to put in for supervisory positions.

Don't just be a manager or a supervisor. Be a leader. That means you have to earn it every day and people respect you for the way you treat others and make decisions instead of just having to pay homage to the title you have.

 

I don't see how staying in your current position would be better experience-wise. I mean, you've already demonstrated your technical experience. You're now being offer the opportunity to step into a leadership role, and I think that would pay bigger dividends moving forward. You'd have both technical experience, and leadership experience, plus you're getting paid more -- even it they're paying less than or right at the market rate for this management role. You could move onto bigger and better things in a year or two.

 

How much more stress and/hours will you have to work. A 40% increase in salary is great...unless you're also spending 40% more time at work or stressing about work.

 

Management poses it's own challenges. More money, more problems right? 40% plus bonus is REALLY hard to say no to, regardless of how high you prioritize compensation. If you have a passion for leading, just know PM'ing is a little different, since you lead, yet you have no real authority since you aren't anyone's boss (unless it's different there). It's a fun challenge if you are into it. Typically not as fulfilling though.

Management typically also means you give the company more of your time as well. The work-life balance shifts depending on your company's culture.

Another thing to think about is, if you are going to manage people that used to be your peers.

Again, there are a lot of factors to consider, but with that significant of a pay jump...it might trump the other factors, unless the PM job is just horrible. It sounds ok since you'd have reports. Being a mentor, and finding a mentor is big pluses to me.

 

I work in IT and have worked with a lot of PMs. I've never seen any of them manage people per se. They manage resources that are handed to them by the resources' actual managers. It does take people skills, of course, but you're not doing annual performance reviews etc.
PMs can make good money and I thought going that route too since I'm not sure how much longer I can keep at the top of tech wave. Sooner or later I will slow down on the learning and fall behind.

 

Every single raise I have gotten over the course of my 37+ years in the workforce has been +<40%.

 

I wouldn't say that at all. Mid-level management is usually one of the first to go when budget cuts come around. Lower level IT, like Help Desk, has already shown that it can be moved and partially automated even. I'm a consultant so that is not something they can easily outsource. But with better technology they can do with less of people like me or they can hand the tools to someone with a lesser skillset. That's part of the keeping on top of the tech wave that I mentioned previously. I have to know what part of my skillset becomes less valuable and then constantly replace it with something that will be valuable.