> Many times non-technical project managers were useless. Just overpaid glorified secretaries trying to take meeting notes, often losing valuable information in translation.
I'll also point out that this stereotype is widely accepted by engineers, so even if you are a former engineer and do have the technical chops, many engineering teams out there will treat you like a secretary anyway and disregard your technical judgment. I'm a project manager but have been coding for longer than a lot of engineers I work with have been alive. I've seen the spectrum of engineers from great collaborators who treat you as a [technical and professional] equal, to arrogant assholes who treat you like you're their note-taker/janitor/servant.
For a concrete example, I remember a project manager arguing with a senior developer about what a particular wireless specification required, the project manager had a Bernie Sanders moment when she had to remind him, "I wrote the damn spec!"
I'll also point out that this stereotype is widely accepted by engineers, so even if you are a former engineer and do have the technical chops, many engineering teams out there will treat you like a secretary anyway and disregard your technical judgment. I'm a project manager but have been coding for longer than a lot of engineers I work with have been alive. I've seen the spectrum of engineers from great collaborators who treat you as a [technical and professional] equal, to arrogant assholes who treat you like you're their note-taker/janitor/servant.
For a concrete example, I remember a project manager arguing with a senior developer about what a particular wireless specification required, the project manager had a Bernie Sanders moment when she had to remind him, "I wrote the damn spec!"