Technical Architect vs. Senior Project Manager

[Sabudana]

I R2Ied in January. After talking to several companies and declining some low-ball offers, I now have two good offers. Both are from Indian Offshore Consulting companies (like TCS, Wipro, etc.). The money is not great, but not bad either.

One of the companies is giving a Senior Technical Architect Role with 50% focus on architecture across multiple projects and 50% focus on presales activities. Travel will be 40-50% so they say. This job has more technical activities. For now, there will be zero people reporting to me.

The other company is offering a Senior Project Manager position with Account Management for multiple projects. This is a pure PM role with 20% technical activities. There will be anywhere from 5 to 50 people in my team depending on the projects handled.

I have so far been involved more on the technical architecture side in the US. I am in that confused state on whether to continue on the technical side (which I like), or to switch over to Management (which I may not like that much).

Any suggestions from the group as to what may be better long term ? Are there career prospects if you stay technical for long ? What if I want to start something on my own, or be an Independent Contractor/Consultant later ? Would staying in the technical area be helpful, or would project mgmt be better ?

Any words of wisdom will be helpful.

[MunnaBhaiNRI]

I personally hate management, just live on techical activities..
Management is like a high way(US free way) any one can enter and exit... no one fully depends on you, can be fired/hired at any junction.
Technical stuff?? Projects/Folks depends up on your brain.. your archicture... you will get value for your existance, you cant be replaced over night..

One additional lazy thing I like in tech stuff is.. you can do complete the work at your own time, no need to attend day long meetings, financial budgeting for projects etc..

I love to be tech beee..

From your case point of view, you sounds like more into tech stuff.. just go in it..

[MadMax]

Looking at most Indian company structure...I think it makes more sense to jump into the management position as soon as you can, because that is what you will have to do in the future.

[layman]

If you have already made some money, you can choose the job you like. I mean, look at the job content and take up the one you would enjoy doing everyday. In management, the problem is you have to lick the ___ of so many people. Invariably, in India your boss will be an idiot and a clueless guy.

[Nj2Blr]

If you are planning to be in India long term, I think the management position is a better choice. In U.S, one could have 20 yrs of experience and still code, but in India the thinking is different. If one is not a manager, then that person is considered not bright. People are very focussed on titles and Business/Visiting cards. So when you don't have a manager in the title, you don't have much status amongst peers. I also think most of the coding is done by junior people .
I have the same dilemma as to which jobs to apply for! I am planning on R2I in Sep 2007.

[realentity]

I would definitely be aiming for a managerial position on R2I. Gotta get used to being called "sir" by the juniors. :)

[Old-Spice2]

If you are planning to be in India long term, I think the management position is a better choice. In U.S, one could have 20 yrs of experience and still code, but in India the thinking is different. If one is not a manager, then that person is considered not bright. People are very focussed on titles and Business/Visiting cards. So when you don't have a manager in the title, you don't have much status amongst peers. I also think most of the coding is done by junior people .
I have the same dilemma as to which jobs to apply for! I am planning on R2I in Sep 2007.

You mean in US having a senior title like Director and VP does not make sense or has no value? Many Desis can't make it to these jobs due to factors like communications skill, lack of networking and sometime simply not being "American". Senior title and position commands respect everywhere, not to mention the money that comes with it. Also one must try to progress forward rather than get stuck in coding and other IC kind of role for life.

[amul]

I am just curious, what packages did they offer you ? Any ball park would be great if you do not want to divulge the exact number. The reason why I am asking is that I am working with one of the offshoring company in US and I am a US employee planning to go back to India with the same company

[FreeSpirit]

Sabudana,

If both the offers are from Indian companies then I think you'll be better off with Sr. Project Manager role. Reasons being,
1. Off-shore companies value the no. of people that report to you and the net billable $ from your group. This plays major role for career growth and when you change jobs.
2. Technical Architect role in these companies is not very technical. You might be doing all the estimations for project and PM just puts it in Excel or Microsoft Project. He gets the credit and you get ZIP.
3. Unless company has lot of development projects there's not much scope for real Tech. Architecture work. Most of the work involves tasks like - migration, performance tuning of a broken app which was poorly architected to begin with, code review, code walk-thru etc.

In my view if you want to remain technical it's better to join Product Companies or Start-up.

[layman]

Mmhmm, All the good tech guys trained in US wants to be "Sir"ed and want to become managers when they R2I. In India also they are not sparing good tech guys. They promote them to managers. If everyone becomes managers who will do quality design, coding, architecture etc. The freshers? God save India.