Infrastructure Support to Project Management

[Staplebug]

Hi All,

For the Last 8 years I have been working for an investment bank as a Senior Windows Support engineer. I love the work I do however last year there was a management shakeup and I now work within a team who I hate. It has been the first time in my career I actually feel depressed coming into work.

A senior manager I worked for a few years ago who I like and respect has offered me a position as a project manager with a 7k pay rise.

I currently work a fixed day of 8-4 and rarely have to stay past this time as our team hands off to other parts of the world so do have it quite easy.

Do I?
Take the PM job with the 7k payrise
Stay where I am, keep my head down and hope for another management shakeup or redundancy.
Look for a job outside the bank doing the same thing I currently do and enjoy?

Personal info:
31 Years old
2 kids (1 month old and 3 year old)
London

[Burrow01]

I did this move - worked for me :-)

It depends if you want to actually get into Project Management, and how important the current hours of working are for you.

Personally I think PM work will give you a greater scope in the future for promotion, and is less susceptible to being offshored

[Pulse]

The move to PM work sounds like it could be a good move; especially with the pay rise. I'd go for it.

I'd imagine your hours will stop being so fixed, but (in my experience anyway) it does allow for a degree of flexibility too.

[thetapeworm]

If you feel you can make something of yourself in that role then go for it, your technical background is bound to be advantageous but will you become frustrated by not being as "hands on" with the technology?

Does the new role also offer PM specific training? If it does then it sounds like a no-brainer to me, ultimately you're still the tech guy should it prove to be something you regret and you have scope to go back into a similar role to the one you have now but with some PM experience too.

[h0b0]

I have a small insight into the world of project management in the financial industry. ( may still be talking BS though so this is all IMHO). The large financial houses are moving to have their developers and support staff infrastructure off shore. It was at one point thought that it would be going to cheaper office space in the less glamorous places of the UK and US but this has not shown the reduction in costs they want and so off to India, Manila and Eastern Europe. Those left behind in the core offices will be mid to senior level management and PMs. If I had a young family I would be looking for long term security as well as potential growth in my career. If I was you I would jump at the offer and get a PMI cert

[thetapeworm]

My lot (a large, well know IT company) have outsourced a lot of their PMs to India / Eastern Europe - apparently they are a 10th of the cost and you only need 12 of them and numerous overseas support staff to do the same job as 1 PM in the UK