project management or storage engineer?

[Elbryn]

Which appeals more to you? IT project management or Storage engineer?

I'm an ex lan administrator of about 5 years who made the move to project management (project leader) about a year ago but in an area where the projects are mostly coordination efforts rather than getting the project at an idea stage and running through the full cycle of development. there's no scoping, no financial calculations, all we get is the loosely defined goals for approved projects and chase down the managers for resources to define the tasks, deadlines, and act as the information brokers between groups.

On the other hand, i've been offered a position as a storage engineer (not senior level). The positions both deadend into the same broadband classification so the move is being called a lateral move. There is definitely negotiation to be done regarding a pay raise (currently none) which i feel is bogus as the two seniors i'd be working with sit roughly 40% higher than i do currently. there's also the matter of adding on call and an expectation for longer hours.

Which track do you feel has the better long term potential? Curious to see what other folks think, especially given the concentration of IT folks here. Assume that i have all the credentials needed to stay in the PM world and that if i made the move back to storage, i'd pick up any useful certs within a few years.

 

[rasczak]

IT PM has better potential. The question really should be what do YOU want to do? You can always go to a new company and put PM in your resume and it would look real good.

 

[Brovane]

I have talked to storage people before and they tell me it is fairly good gig. Properly setup storage is fairly stable and usually doesn't require much after hours work. However mileage can vary. I would talk with the other senior storage people and find out what there typical hours are. PM is also a useful field. From my perspective they are both good fields. What do you want to do more?

 

[spidey07]

Project Management would be much better long term. You can do any IT projects and not pigeon hole yourself into one specific technology limiting your options. Plus the money is better.

 

[sdifox]

PM would not be limited to IT projects. But then most projects fail

 

[vi edit]

Depends, do you prefer to babysit hardware or people? And do you prefer to be an expert in a specialized field or are you more of a jack of all trades who learns enough to be conversational and then move on.

If you are in a big enough environment the storage engineering can get pretty cool. Most of our SAN guys are fun and easy to work with. Very different personality than the server & network guys who always seem to have a chip on their shoulder.

The project managers tend to get pretty worked up and overstressed, but it's an interesting job with your fingers in a lot of pots.

I personally would lean towards the PM side, just because I'm not the type to specialize my skills. I'm more of a grazer when it comes to my knowledge.

 

[Platypus]

It depends on what you want to do.

I'm a UNIX/SAN/Storage Engineer right now and I wouldn't trade it for anything else. You will be involved in most critical projects across the enterprise and get to touch way more and be way more technical. I wouldn't disagree that a PM is involved with more but my advice would be to specialize in something. As you can see, my speciality is actually UNIX Engineering but because of how much UNIX touches everything else, I was able to get into multiple different arenas very easily.

I find PM work to be dull beyond words and almost every PM I've ever worked with across multiple fields and companies has been fucking worthless. If you want to stay technical I would recommend against it based on what I've personally witnessed. That isn't to say you can't be a PM and still be technical though.

Pick what makes you the most happy, not what gives you the highest paycheck. I cannot stress that enough. You have to do this shit for a long time, don't sell yourself out for a higher paycheck if you are going to be miserable.

Just my two cents, your mileage certainly will vary and take it with a grain of salt, etc.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I find PM work to be dull beyond words and almost every PM I've ever worked with across multiple fields and companies has been fucking worthless.

Me too, and it always amazes me to hear about the high salaries PMs can command. Seriously, I don't think I've ever met a project manager who really had a clue about what was going on and they were more interested in blamestorming or throwing around buzzwords than getting stuff done.

Pick what makes you the most happy, not what gives you the highest paycheck. I cannot stress that enough. You have to do this shit for a long time, don't sell yourself out for a higher paycheck if you are going to be miserable.

This.

 

[Elbryn]

thanks for the input. i understand the decision falls on me as to what i'd rather be doing. i feel equally comfortable with either side of the equation having been on both sides of the fence. i'd put a slight more enjoyment out of working the technical side but am pretty happy either way and i have the feeling that in another 2-3 years the techie edge i have now will be attritioned away and i'll just be the guy asking about timelines and what the issue is.

The IT PM world currently enjoys high pay but the job does not require much from a entry barrier perspective. it's not that hard a transition to go from technical to PM. Whereas a PM going back to the technical world after a certain period of time, is behind the curve and is a more difficult path. The PMP cert is not really difficult to pass and i feel is getting devalued due to the larger numbers of folks acquiring the cert. But i can also see there is always going to be a need for someone to harp on timelines, project task planning, risk/issue/changes, and to generally keep the chains moving on projects.

storage is a growing field as IT is growing more and more reliant on storing every data point known to man. it's gotta go somewhere, between online, nearline, and backup. lots of innovations in tech are coming down that path so it truly is a requirement. cloud, flash memory, virtualization, automated tier migration, dedupe, etc.. it's niche which boxes one into a specific role that only larger businesses have.

Pm side-> project leader ->project manager -> sr project manager -> portfolio manager

san-> san engineer -> sr san engineer -> team manager?

haha. i think i've thought about this too much. i'm probably going to run the numbers, set a number for which i would agree to change and negotiate to that. if i get it, i go. if not i dont. either way i'm in a decent spot. no risk to existing job with good prospects.

 

[Platypus]

Storage is huge right now and will continue to be that way for quite some time.

How much experience do you have with it?

 

[spidey07]

Storage is huge right now and will continue to be that way for quite some time.

How much experience do you have with it?

The problem is even huge companies only need 2-3 storage guys. Those same companies need dozens of IT project managers. That's why consulting is where to go for technical skills, not an IT department.

 

[BoberFett]

PMs can work their way up to management if that's your goal. An engineer is probably going to be an engineer until they retire. YMMV.

 

[hanoverphist]

I have talked to storage people before and they tell me it is fairly good gig. Properly setup storage is fairly stable and usually doesn't require much after hours work. However mileage can vary. I would talk with the other senior storage people and find out what there typical hours are. PM is also a useful field. From my perspective they are both good fields. What do you want to do more?

SE will always be a "floor" position, the top of the chain is still a production job. PM can and usually does lead to higher management, which is where id rather be. i have yet to see any management job pay less than the production jobs they manage, as well as less hours overall. if you want to be a hands on kind of guy, stay with the SE route.

 

[Red Squirrel]

PM is probably more money, but more boring and lot of politics and crap like that. Storage engineer sounds like it could be more fun. So you need to decide between money, or sanity.

 

[preslove]

If you want $$ and promotions in the future, go PM and start considering MBA programs. Does your company ever pay for continuing education?

 

[PricklyPete]

Just re-iterating what has already been stated. PM likely has more headroom and more flexibility if you ever move on to other companies. Is probably relatively less fun and more stressful though.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Depends on what you want to do
Project Management = WAY TOO MUCH PAPERWORK ... IMO

 

[spidey07]

Depends on what you want to do
Project Management = WAY TOO MUCH PAPERWORK ... IMO

A good project management systems takes care of most of it. As much as I hate Planview, it's very powerful.

 

[Elbryn]

Storage is huge right now and will continue to be that way for quite some time.

How much experience do you have with it?

enough to get into the door but not enough to be considered an expert/senior level.

 

[BurnItDwn]

A good project management systems takes care of most of it. As much as I hate Planview, it's very powerful.

ugh, planview ... that's pretty much a 4 letter word to me!

That said, I am not a PM, but I still get stuck managing many of the smaller projects I lead ..... (small projects as in, we have like 5 or 6 releases per year, and I'm the only developer on the project ... planview is IMO overkill for stuff like that .... but we are using it for everything now ... sigh)

 

[Platypus]

enough to get into the door but not enough to be considered an expert/senior level.

If it were me, I would jump on the job in a heartbeat. Getting paid to learn extremely valuable skills that will eventually yield you a senior position is a no-brainer.

 

[Elbryn]

If you want $$ and promotions in the future, go PM and start considering MBA programs. Does your company ever pay for continuing education?

no worries on that account. continuing education where i work is quite excellent. they paid about 85% of my mba. if i end up staying here for the long haul, i'll probably come out with another masters, just for fun.

 

[Elbryn]

again, thanks all for the input, i've thought about this too much and since i'm comfortable with pursuing either route, have decided to place the decision in HR's hands. the offer they made me was essentially a lowball, lateral move with no pay increase. I've set a number in my head and will be sending them my external/internal market data along my rationale for asking for additional compensation. the new hours would be at least 10% more than current and include 8 weeks of on call time per year.