[ryandrake]

It's a mixed bag. Product management and project management are broader roles that let you see the bigger picture, and let you interact with more people at your company. If you're a PM or PJM at a smallish (100-300 person) company, you'll know everyone in the company within your first year. So it's a good career move if you're more outgoing/extroverted. It's also nice to not have to constantly be running the "hot technology" treadmill to stay relevant. I can pick and choose what languages/frameworks to learn that I think will be most valuable, instead of having to dabble in everything because "Framework X is outdated--Everyone's using Framework Y now!"

Downside is you generally have to let go of direct control of what code goes into the products and let your talented engineers do it. My first few months as a PM I still wanted to commit code and had to stop myself. There is also far less demand for PMs and PJMs at tech companies. Everyone's hiring developers by the truckload, but PM positions are few and far between. The whole "it's easy to change jobs in Silicon Valley" thing only really applies to developers. Pay is also not as good as engineering (currently).