You don't have to transition. Think hard before you do.
I became an engineering manager at around 26, and did it for another 5 years, and thought that was my future. But I transitioned jobs and ended up getting back into development, and realized a few things:
- I hate meetings, and PMs go to meetings. A lot.
- PMs have less control then you probably think.
- Writing code means I get to actually make stuff. At the end of the day, as a manger, it was often hard to point to anything as a real accomplishment.
I'm 37 now, and have no desire to go back to being a manager. Now, maybe being a PM is what you really want to do, and if so, I wish you the best of luck. We could use some PMs with actual development skills.
I became an engineering manager at around 26, and did it for another 5 years, and thought that was my future. But I transitioned jobs and ended up getting back into development, and realized a few things:
- I hate meetings, and PMs go to meetings. A lot.
- PMs have less control then you probably think.
- Writing code means I get to actually make stuff. At the end of the day, as a manger, it was often hard to point to anything as a real accomplishment.
I'm 37 now, and have no desire to go back to being a manager. Now, maybe being a PM is what you really want to do, and if so, I wish you the best of luck. We could use some PMs with actual development skills.