Any advice for software professionals who are having trouble deciding between a more technical career path vs. a people-management role?

Many peers have provided valuable feedback, and I agree with most of it.

1. It starts with knowing who you are and what you want to achieve.
2. If you're tech-savvy, with strong analytical and problem-solving skills, consider staying in a technical role and becoming a mentor.
3. If you excel in people management (as others have mentioned—skills like empathy, compassion, and ensuring psychological safety), then focus on developing in that area.

As for concerns about AI taking jobs, especially in people management, I believe policymakers will still value the human touch and the unique energy people bring to organizations.

I agree with most of the commenters here. People management needs empathy and personable personality. It is important to be able to connect with diverse set of individuals from different walks of life. In order to connect and associate with technical staff, it is advantageous if you come from a technical background. Software professionals are engineers at heart, as a leader/people manager, one should be able to connect the dots and help them make progress with work, remove impediments, and coach/mentor be becoming better software engineers.

As for being a software professional, if you want to be the person solving technical hands-on challenges on the ground, while also coaching/mentoring junior engineers, it might provide job satisfaction.

Often, people have misconceptions that you need to be a people manager to be successful and/or wealthy. I would just follow your passion and give you best. Most organizations now offer staff engineer roles that are high seniority in the organization as an individual contributor and not needing to be a people manager. Just look for right opportunity.

Good luck!

This is a great question.

To help you decide between a technical career path or a people-management role, break your focus, knowledge, and passion into four key areas:
Technology
People
Business
Product Development Quality & Processes

As a Software Developer, your primary focus is typically on Technology and Product Quality. That is expected until you reach a certain seniority level. As you progress to a Senior position, you're not just expected to develop and deliver. You will also be expected to share your technology, architecture, and development processes knowledge. This means working more closely with people, mentoring and helping others grow.

Now, the real question is: What do you want to do after reaching the Senior level? Do you want to maintain that level of technical involvement, or do you want to bring more value to the organization?

Expert Path:
If you want to stay hands-on with technology, diving deeper into architectures and solutions, the Expert path might be for you. Here, you'd focus on advanced research and coding, but it’s not just about keeping to yourself. You’ll be expected to share your knowledge on a larger scale, often beyond your team and even your company. This could lead to roles like Software Advocate, where you inspire others and promote your organization’s technology. But be ready: succeeding as an Expert means developing your communication, knowledge sharing and public-speaking skills to spread your expertise effectively.

Tech Manager:
If you’re more interested in how your work impacts the business and want to scale those efforts, consider the Tech Manager route. You’ll stay close to technology, but your focus will shift toward managing teams and aligning technical work with business needs.
Your days will involve more meetings, communication, and an understanding of business goals. You’ll work closely with Product Managers to align team efforts with the company's priorities. While you may occasionally dip into architectural decisions, it's better to have strong Experts and Seniors handle those aspects. Otherwise, you risk being torn between technical work and managerial responsibilities, potentially wanting to return to your previous role.

Incentivization:
Some companies tend to incentivize Tech Managers more because their impact on growth and KPIs like team size are easier to measure. But don’t discount the value of Experts. They can attract top talent and significantly enhance the technical strength of the organization. In our company, both roles are considered equally valuable, requiring different skill sets but contributing at the same level.

What Not to Do:
Forcing someone into either the Expert or Tech Manager path without considering their preferences is a mistake. You’ll lose them—, both their engagement and their passion. It's crucial to provide both career options and let people choose the path that suits them best.

I also faced this dilemma in my journey. I would suggest to see if you can do both [I am doing it]. I don't believe that you can lead teams or organisations without having the technical skillset. Pure people management role are vanishing.

It is an interesting question and I agree that it depends on the organization and what they value at any period in time.  I also wouldn't rule out doing both, you can be technical and a people manager, at least that is what I have found in my career.  

My experience is that there usually are more people-managment roles then technical leadership roles, but less compitition for the technical roles.  You might have to be more patient in your career to find those right technical roles. 

If you really want to be an IC then finding those roles are a little more difficult and you really do need to understand how your organization treats and promotes those roles.  At a most senior level those do seem harder to find.