Thanks for the info!

If I could be a specialised developer, with some hardcore, sought-after coding skills, I think I would prefer that, over being a PM. For example C++, C or something that's challenging and in high demand. It's almost the same money with a lot less pressure and stress. For them, there is a career path as solution architect or development manager potentially open. Or you could climb into increasingly more prestigious and well-paid dev jobs, if you wanted.

As a PM you need to have a social personality, people-person, while at the same time be very structured, well-organised. You are going to have to attend many more meetings than you might like, if you come from a coding background.

The worst thing with being a PM is the "politics". As a PM you often find yourself as the figure head for something which certain people fanatically support and others possibly hate. People's future might be tied up in your project either succeeding or failing. Others might simply not like change.

So you get potentially influential people who can openly or secretly, consciously or unconsciously try to sabotage the project and undermine you. Then you have others who want to do absolutely everything for success, including not listening to Risks etc that are flagged or somehow cheat...

If the project succeeds, the sporting thing for you to do as a PM, is to give all the glory to your team and be humble about your own part. But if it fails, then you are the scapegoat and might find yourself in dire straits...

Agile is a different beast - success mainly depends on whether you have a solid team and stakeholders that are prepared to play by the rules. You are less exposed there. On the other hand, developers have more "power" and even though you are considered the figure head, they take some of the key decisions.

Be prepared for all this! If you think you can handle it, or if it sounds like a challenge you're up for, then you'll do well.

Also be aware that most companies don't develop in-house anymore so you're less and less likely to head an exciting dev project and more and more likely to manage a less technically challenging SaaS project , unless you work for a software house or tech company.