My background is a little bit different from most people...
Enlisted in the US Army - CyberSecurity MRF129 - I was a Network Engineer for the majority of my enlisted life.
Went to college at North Dakota State University, there is where I recieved my first civillian IT Job, as network support for their infrastructure. Not so much over the phone as once again I am doing mostly network here, however, working a lot of odd hours/on call.
Graduated from North Dakota State University, became a System Administrator for a local hospital. After that worked for a large VAR/Consulting agency, travelling nation wide for whatever client. Became a certified trainer for VMWare, Citrix, and even Microsoft. Still working for the same VAR, worked as a trainer for a little over a year.
Went back to becoming a field consultant, (Still same VAR) while working on my PM Certification. Recieved PM Certification, and took perm offer w/ Target Corporation as a PM based out of Minneapolis, MN.
The reason why I tell you this is because of this, I love IT, I love computers, do not get me wrong. But I don't feel like re learning, re training, and doing everything over and over again for the rest of my career/life. Project Management has stayed relatively the same for many years, there are new process, new ways to get things done, but the maintenance on this skill set is much lower then that of your admin/engineer.
I lived the glory days of being the consultant, it's great. However even comparing to an expert "niche market" consultant, your average PM is going to make far more money.
Moral of the story: Become a PM.