The cost of the journey

The cost of your journey can be considered mainly to be the effort you put in. This is the blood, sweat, and tears you will spill along the way. For instance, even reading this book can be considered part of the cost of your journey! You must decide how much you are willing to spend, or not, or, more sensibly, how much you are willing to invest, in balance with time and quality.

Practically speaking, if you choose to invest in some extra training, which is rarely a bad idea, it may cost you some money. However, one of the more likely reasons why you might be considering becoming a manager is the usually associated higher salary and benefits package. So, in the long term, there shouldn't be much of a direct financial cost.

Whether or not a manager is worth more to a company than a developer is a highly subjective debate and a topic for deeper discussion. By accepting industry norms, it's safe to say that a manager can normally command a higher salary than a developer, whom they may well manage. There are exceptions to this, some of which I have experienced myself, but looking at a respectable independent salary benchmark for the overall picture, then this is a clearly defined position for most companies. If you look at Glassdoor, which provides a real-world, data-driven view of the average salaries for various jobs, then you'll see that this is the case.