Summary of my experiences in management compared to a more technical role:
The good:
+More scope to influence decision making / tackle problems rather than having to execute the decisions of others that I may or may not agree with
+Have found working with new/junior staff much more enjoyable than I anticipated; I really enjoy seeing them develop, mentoring and looking for opportunities of how they can grow in the organisation
+Much bigger support network than I was expecting, several peers to bounce ideas off etc
+Fewer complex, time-consuming technical issues that I'm responsible for (I may be accountable but at least I don't have to execute them myself)
+More people I can delegate work to
+Being able to define priorities for the team
The less good:
-Mediating differences of opinion between staff - generally OK but you can have the odd one or two personalities that are very confrontational
-Slight feeling of unease when giving team members control of things I am opinionated about, especially if I am not convinced by their approach but want to give them autonomy rather than micro-managing.
-Balancing a wide variety of responsibilities and priorities that aren't directly comparable - e.g. recruitment vs developing existing team vs 3rd party vendor negotiations vs process improvement vs keeping up with industry best practice vs networking vs budgeting vs defining strategy vs stakeholder management vs planning etc etc
-Working under processes that aren't ideal and come under criticism from the team but are so widely used across the organisation that they cannot be easily changed - so I find myself playing devil's advocate a lot and having to defend them when I am not 100% bought into them myself
-Secret squirrel stuff where I am looped in to something but not permitted to disclose it to others
-Conversely, being in a position where I know less about something than my team and then get a question about it
