Yes companies hire PMs, usually only because the existing managers do not understand well enough what they’re working with to manage the minutia, tech is a good example of this.
Most of these managers hire PMs in hope that they’ll “make everything and everyone work.” … but there’s just one problem, they don’t have any actual power to do this, and everyone they’re supposed to make work knows this.
So engineers consider them an redundant useless role, and blow them off accordingly. Management doesn’t want to hear from them that there “engineers don’t work” or that “they should back them up.” because the managers are pissed their PM can’t win a battle when they’re sent in naked and unarmed.
So PMs are left with playing one person against another, as their prime way of ensuring projects stay on track. They often graft themselves onto buy-the-tape methodologies like AGILE, a hotbed of side stepping difficult tasks in favor of easy ones - engineers love it! And lame tacts like standing meeting to harass publically shame anyone who isn’t dreaming of work every night.
Advancement is virtually nil, unlike other jobs you really aren’t developing any new or valuable skills, anyone can be a bean counting nag snitch, and you’ll get an according level of thanks. So dead end ville.
This will probably sound misogynist, but really the people that I’ve seen function best as tech PMs are younger women, because most of the engineers are men, and they will overlook viewing them as a useless role in favor of having a pretty face to talk to.
Design people will usually step on PMs too, because they tend to essentially be loud mouth, self promoting sales people who know photoshop, and don’t like anyone with the title of manager acting as a go-between, because it doubles the amount of self-aggrandizing pitches they have to do on a daily basis.
So yeah, it would be a good “gig” for a colegiate thinking young person who’s working on getting somewhere else in life.
PMP certs are like most certs, if you’re not the person who thought up certifying people, you should avoid it.