Yes, birds are messy and take a lot of work - and money - to maintain, but they can be worth it.
If you've already decided you want a pet parrot, your best bet is to visit some of the websites below to decide what personality type fits your lifestyle best.
With the proper emotional support, any parrot can be very loving. Learning to respond lovingly and with understanding to their body language and behavior is a major part of whether you have a bird that is loving or mean.
Being prey birds (they are hawks' lunches), they don't respond to things the same way we do. Parrots behave defensively by instinct, not aggressively. They're wild animals, and nothing like cats or dogs. Their boundaries must be respected to have a successful and happy life with them. They are not designed to be in a subservient, master-pet relationship. Approval does not motivate them, getting what they want motivates them.
By learning to speak THEIR language, you can have a unique relationship with a parrot that you cannot have with a cat or dog. It's more on an equal level, fed with mutual respect and love.
That said, some species naturally like to be handled and stroked more than others, and go more readily to strangers. They also are typically very playful birds and little clowns. Most of the cockatoo and conure families have these characteristics.
There's never a perfect pet, though - all this comes at a pretty heavy price. Though it would seem that a cockatoo is a perfect first bird, they don't make good pets for anyone less than a complete bird fanatic with lots of time on their hands.
Cockatoos are extraordinarily destructive - they've been known to chew chair and table legs off, rip holes in sheetrock, and remove the woodwork. They're probably the very loudest of all the parrots - and like them all, they sound off at dawn and dusk. It can be physically painful to be in the same room with them when they screech. They are very messy, and far too clever for their own goods. They're nearly as mechanically inclined as raccoons, and require sometimes two or three locks on the cage - they're lock pickers.
They're also very demanding. If you don't spend enough time with them, they will literally go insane. Not only does that make a poor pet, but it's horrible for the bird.
They live VERY long lives, too. Most outlive their owners.
What I'd suggest you do is to read through the links below. ONce you think you might want a specific type of bird, do a search for that type of bird and read whatever you can find. Not every source has the whole story, though you'll see common threads through them all.
Whatever decision you make, please don't make it lightly. Parrots are such intelligent creatures that your decision could literally mean a life of love and wonder for him, or a life of insanity and hell. We owe it to them to do research.