Firstly: if u like to be Planning engineer and u feel that is the best for ur career then do it,but don't change ur career just because that the planning engineer salary is slittly better cuz a weak planner will not get a good salary
Secondly: most of the planners think that just to attend some courses in Planning Software will make them a planners,that is 100% wrong
Because to be good planning engineer u must have a Good experience in the things u r going to make planning for it,due to that during setup ur Program of works u'll take a lot of technical decisions and all ur team will follow it
So u must understand very carefully the process of construction activities and what is the best alternatives u can provide the construction team with it
Thirdly u must know that when u prepare a good Program of works u r preserving ur company rights for Claims & E.O.T.(Extensions of time) if u r working in Egypt u'll not feel the effect of that but if u r working in Gulf Area it is very important
So u be Good Planning Engineer:
A.u must Have a good experience in the Field u r working
B.u must have a good experience in manual time analysis,and also cost control(Cost control depends on ur Company Scale)
C.u must have a good Knowledge in the software u gonna use (so u can know what is the problems u r facing & to understand the causes of the results u r getting)