A few of my classmates have asked me why I chose to pursue the Development Management (DM) track in the Software Engineering course. Though my choice has been based entirely on my personal opinions, I thought that sharing them might help some prospective students who are still trying to decide between the Development Management and Technical tracks.

Firstly, let me explain the structure of the two tracks. Students in both tracks have to take the same courses and are on the same teams during the entire first year. In the second year, the students in the DM track join the first-year students in the Software Management course while the Tech track students continue on with the technical track.

The major benefit of the technical track is that it allows the students to stay technical and further their technical expertise. A big pull of the Tech track is the Practicum class that students take in the second year. This class places you (and your team) in a real-life situation with a real-life company working on (hopefully) a real-life product. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest reasons to choose the Technical track, especially if you're looking to work in a company setting that is different from your current one.

In the DM track, the courses dive deeper into the issues of people and software management. The fundamental difference here is that you're going to learn how to manage people, not code. This is a big shift for most people coming from a technical background. Managing people is quite different from being able to write code and directly contribute to the completion of a project. When being a manager, you are responsible for the people you manage. Your performance is directly related to the performance of the engineers that you're managing. Therefore, this becomes a much bigger choice than just choosing between the DM track and Technical track - it is fundamentally a choice of where you see yourself in the next 5 years.

If you see yourself being a manager, managing a large project, being an entrepreneur, the odds are that the DM track is the one for you. If you see yourself being a lead/senior engineer or an architect, the DM track may still be for you. Why? Let me explain.

If you decide to stay technical for the next 5 years, you can still benefit greatly by learning how to manage people. You can gain a lot of headway in your career path by learning the metrics by which your manager is going to measure you. You may also gain some insight into how your manager's manager is going to be evaluating him/her and how they are going to be evaluating the success of the team/project. This is integral to being able to navigate the organization chart and move upwards. It will also help you become a better team player and make your manager look better (which always makes you look better).

Lastly, if not for anything else, the DM track might help you increase your pay scale. Let me explain since this isn't very intuitive. Initially, turning into a manager may actually result in a pay decrease. However, the more success you have as a manager in leading teams to launch and deliver successful products will only increase your worth. Eventually as you repeat this cycle often with consistent success, you will enjoy a faster pay rate increase. Simply put, being a manager will put you in a position to take risks and reap the benefits from it. It opens the opportunities that you can take advantage of that you may not be able to as an individual contributor.

You must make this personal choice after careful reflection and evaluation of your career goals. But I hope my reasons help you choose between either option, because, at the end of the day, having a plan for either Tech or DM tracks is better than having none at all.