The real reasons people become PMs, the three realities of the job, and a five-question self-assessment to know if it’s right for you.

I didn't fall into project management. I chose it — on purpose, in 2006, moving out of a software engineering background. What pulled me in wasn't a title or a raise. It was the work itself: getting things done by coordinating, by talking to people across completely different parts of a business, by having a different flavor of work every day instead of one narrow slice of it. There was a real satisfaction in that — not the satisfaction of writing one clean function, but the satisfaction of watching a lot of moving, disagreeing parts come together into something that ships. The technical-to-management move also gave me something a pure engineering track couldn't: exposure. I got to learn, understand, and implement process across industries, and I got close enough to new technologies to actually know what was being built, without being the one stuck maintaining it for the next ten years. If you're someone who leans toward governance and process — toward the "how do we make sure this actually works, on time, for everyone who needs it" question — that leaning is itself the entry point into project management. You don't need a different personality for it. You need that leaning, and a place to point it. I've been carrying that flag for over 20 years now.