I would definitely pick an engineering role. This is because, engineering roles are a lot more interactive in terms of hands on projects and technical skills. An engineering role deals with the details and the analysis and everything that actually gets put into a project, while a manager only directs and sees the outcome. The best part about an engineer’s job is that they get to see a project from start to end and feel accomplished when something they worked on is actually completed. In Lockheed Martin, a couple weeks back, our best engineer got promoted to a lead position. We asked him how it feels and he stated that he strongly dislikes it. He says, all he enjoys doing is engineering work, not making charts and schedules. I want to go into work everyday challenged with a new task, not make spreadsheets and write documents.