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I am trying to figure out whether or not I want to change my major. I am currently electrical engineering but kinda want to change to engineering management. within a short time a lot of grads from here move up into management, so my thinking is why don't i just skip the first couple years of actually engineering and get a head start to the top.
Here's the deal with being a manager...
Everybody hates you. Even the people who like you, hate you. You have to have balls. Puzzy managers never do chit... You need to not be afraid to make decisions that will piss everyone off... cause you will. Passive personalities and people who fear confrontation tend to not be as successful...
Communication skills are an absolute must... If you can't defend your people, you and them, will get chit on all the time... Especially in a bigger corporate environment... Playing the game is a must... Even if you completely despise office politics, you will have to play them.
Everything is your fault. Get used to it. You're people fluck up, that's your fault. You fluck up, it's your fault. Something flucks up that you looked at, it's your fault. People above you make decisions that result in something in your world flucking up... guess what... It's your fault.
You want positive feedback? Look elsewhere... The higher up you get, the less you hear about how good of a job you are doing. Problems take priority over wins... Those who are motivated by frequent recognition, generally would be miserable as managers.
However, there are some perks...
Control. It's really nice to be able to choose your own destiny... Most of the time, sink or swim... It's all you... I enjoy the responsibility and the reward of knowing we succeed because of the decisions I've made... because of the decisions my people made (whom I developed to make good decisions).
Work. For the most part, you do less as a manager. The trade off is, you are responsible for more. Less physical 'doing stuff', more administrative/analysis/justification/BS'ing... If you hate sitting in the office, talking on the phone, and long periods of racking your brain over operational issues... management is not for you.
Speaking of the work part... Work does not end at 5pm... or whatever 'quittin time' is... You're always on... and need to always be available. I've gotten calls at 4am from managers under me who have emergency situations and I have to cover for them... So despite the fact that I was there for 12 hours the day before, bang! I'm back in for another 14 hours the next day.
Money. There's a ton of money in management... You just have to get there. Entry level and middle management is usually low paying... You start making money when you start moving up... In the technical rhelm, you'll make more as a non-manager most likely... or you won't make much more as a manager... again, that all depends on how far you take it...