Changed my life to become a scrum master. Advice appreciated

My opinion and advice is to apply for jobs.  From my experience in the United States, the only way that companies would let you shadow a team is if you are an intern or new hire. Not sure how other countries work.  But I suggest you apply for jobs and look for ones where they are trying to find "junior" talent or low experience levels.  If the company really understands Scrum, they will see that your teaching background can actually be a beneficial talent for Scrum Masters and that your path to the certification shows a real passion.  

Pursuing more certifications isn't always an aid to employment.  Check out this thread for some good discussion on the subject of certifications. (https://www.scrum.org/forum/scrum-forum/29903/why-agile-community-so-hung-certifications).  If in your case the pursuit of the certification helps you feel stronger in your knowledge, then go ahead. But I would suggest trying the PSM II before the PSK as it shows deeper knowledge of Scrum.  You might also consider the PSD I, PSPO I to accompany your PSM I.  Again it shows an ability to understand Scrum from the perspective of the entire Scrum Team. 

Cover letter is a hard one for me.  I actually never provide a cover letter when I apply in the United States for jobs.  (Again not sure how important it is in other countries.) I usually want my resume to talk for me. I have provided comments on applications and usually tailor them towards the posted job description for which I am applying.  As an English teacher I assume you are really good at context and could probably craft some very good responses.  Do not hide your inexperience as a Scrum Master and highlight your other relevant experience.  Highlight your passion for Scrum as evident by your complete change in career and pursuit of knowledge in the area. 

Good luck and please come back here with updates.  I think your journey could help a lot of others thinking of venturing into the this world as well as people like me that are still trying to find that place I want to call my last job. 

Hi Daniel, 

Thanks for the helpful post.

I take on board what your saying, and think applying for jobs is also probably the best way forward. I suppose internally, I was thinking of doing more qualifications to cover my lack of experience. You are right in that I have other transferable skills which I think are super useful, especially when it comes to communicative approaches and removing impediments.

Although I am British, I live in Germany, and the German tradition of doing things is very by the book.

That said, I will keep you up to date on a new scrum master's journey.

Kind regards, 

Stephen

From Daniel answer I conclude that you live in US. Let me share the story how have I found a job in Texas, US in 1996.

I have arrived there from Poland and I stayed with my dad, who lives there. I was looking a job as Oracle database programmer mainly. I sent out more that 100 CVs and received two invitations for interview. My dad arrange visit at dentist for my. After conversation with dentist assistant she said that her friend is looking for someone in Nortel. I applied and I worked there for one year. After that I returned to Poland. I have married and we lived hapily ever after :)

Stephen, 

Before I really got into my SM work, I thought certifications would get me the job and I'd be set..... boy was I wrong! I learned that all the certifications do is get you in for an interview. I'm a huge supporter of getting certifications, but get them for the right reason. I want to build up my arsenal because it is a way that I can view what I've learned, they are accomplishments of completion. 

With that said, before you send out 100's of resumes, I strongly suggest you find recruiters in your area that have had experience working with folks like yourself. Let them critique your resume and advise you how to structure the resume. They would also be able to advise you on the likelihood of you getting a job too. As I said previously, the certification will get you through the door for an interview, but you either need to have experience or a tremendous wealth of knowledge of Scrum in order to win the interview and ultimately the job. 

I work as an Agile Coach for a large organization going through an Agile Transformation and I frequently participate in interviewing prospective Scrum Masters. I personally feel that experience is great but it can also be a detriment because if it is bad experience; that is worse than no experience at all. 

To summarize, reach out to recruiters in your area that have actually placed Scrum Masters and work with them. Once you've had that done, spend a couple hours a day applying for jobs, and be sure to keep reading and studying on the life of a Scrum Master. 1 book that I highly recommend you invest in is Essential Scrum by Ken S Rubin. One of the best investments I've made and I still use it frequently. 

Best Wishes my friend. I would be happy to give your resume a look as well, just realize that I'm in Texas, not Germany, so there are many things that may be done differently there. Find me on LinkedIn and send it my way if you feel like it.

I'll echo Curtis Slough's excellent advice to talk to recruiters. And I'll add this: look for agile user groups or meetups in your area. My growth as a Scrum Master really took off after I began attending a local Scrum Master group. User groups often provide opportunities to demonstrate and practice what you've learned, as well as connect with other agile practitioners who may be able to mentor you in getting your career off the ground.

Best of luck!

I have no experience in Germany, we hire and interview SMs in Hungary and seen some juniors.

Coding is absolutely no help, IT background would be, without that you have harder time getting a SM job.

All the advices above are great (meetups, recruiter contact, good books, finding mentors). 

If you think it worth it, upload your cv, we can check how we see it.

But your biggest thing as a junior is mindset and toolset. Companies who are willing to interview SMs without IT background look for mindset, so for that you have to deeply understand what agile is, and how can you contribute. And if you are junior and you can show some specific tools you have that shows you are more than an idea. How would you handle a conflict? How would you facilitate a hard decision? How do you provide feedback? (these questions are tipical at our company, but a bigger multi might not focus on these on an interview, not sure)

Id suggest find someone around you (Germany is full of great SMs) and talk to them, for that the meetups mentioned above are great.

Hi everyone. Thanks for the useful feedback.

So this is my target for this week, and I will come back to you with results next week.

1. Reach out to recruiters to critique my CV

2. Join some scrum meet ups where I live.

I appreciate all your helpful advice, and I look forward to coming back to you and telling you what I found.

Thanks again, 

Stephen

Hey Stephen, your case is very good as its really helpful for others facing same scenario.



Years back, I was in the same scenario have no experience and  not following a specific career path I’d chose in my life & ( till today I’m still shaping it ).

as Scrum master and I’m speaking for countries like GCC in middle east, it’s hard to get this job title or even work in Agile culture, so what basically I advise you & myself is to enhance your experience in business analysis, business development because to be a good Scrum Master means you’re strongly able to analysis everything around you, from helping product owners to coach Dev-teams in order to be a cross functional & last but not least is empower the Agile transformation with Executive management in your organization then Agile coach must be your aim later on.

I hope it can help.



Best wishes,



Saleh

Hi everyone, 

Just a quick catch up post. Again thank you for all your responses.

So i have sent my cv to several recruiters and am awaiting feedback. 

I applied for several jobs, with most of them coming back as a no.

There was one company that I was really keen on, so I wrote a follow up email saying asking look, I know I probably didn't get the job because I lack firsthand experience, but is there any possibility for some job shadowing / work placement so I can get that experience?

In response said I should apply for an internship, and I have an interview next week.

So here are my thoughts.

As long as the internship is scrum focussed, I'll take it. I'm not afraid to be a 34 year old intern. This is an opportunity to learn. Also if I can prove myself, maybe there will be an opportunity to work for them directly after.

Will keep you all posted, and thanks again for your valuable suggestions.

Stephen

Networking beats job boards imo. Reach out to people.

Don't give up!

So just another update:

Bit of a disappointing week, but still motivated.

The internship position I applied for turned out to be a dud. No guarantee of working anywhere near the scrum team, and from what I was lead to believe, it would be answering calls from disgruntled customers...

I have asked to do an internship/traineeship in several companies, but only 2 have come back to me so far, and both said they don't offer it.

Whats even more dissapointing, is the employment office is offering to cover the salary costs if they let me do a 1 month internship...

I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon tomorrow to discuss my CV

Anyway, I'll keep plodding.

Appreciate the feedback

Inspect, adapt, repeat.   True mantra of an agile practitioner.  Don't lose faith. It will happen when it is right. In the meantime keep studying and looking for a mentor.  

Good luck and keep up the fight. 

@Daniel Cheers matey. Faith not lost, you learn the most from failure, so pushing on!

Hello Stephen, 

I understand you live in Germany. Do you live near Dusseldorf? Do you understand German well enough to follow a Scrum Team's conversing in German? Responding in English would be perfectly fine? If so, I might have an internship for you. Let me know if you are interested?

Best, Johannes

Hi Johannes,

I am definitely interested and thank you for posting. Yes that should not be a problem. I used to work for a language school, and I was tested at  CEF level B2.1 in German.

I will send you a contact request on linkedin, so you can tell me more about the internship privately.

Thank you very much for taking an interest. I really appreciate it.

Stephen

Update *

So this morning I had a call with Johannes Geske, and he has very kindly offered me an internship. First off a big thank you to Johannes for giving me this opportunity, but also thank you for all the people who offered me advice.

Stephen

You are very welcome, Stephen! We are looking forward to working with you!

Hello Johannes Geske,

your idea about letting Teams actually interview the candidates is great! This is the real agile approach. 

My experience and thoughts:

It's the teams that will be working with the scrum master, and not the recruiters of the company. And I am sure most of the recruiters never had any scrum training. I live in Germany and face the same situation as Stephen. I have years of experience in management, but never one that would say "Scrum Master". I completed some further training and got certified as a Scrum Master and Product Owner, and I am looking forward  to work in the field of agile training. Since this is the biggest challenge for companies in the next years in the process of adaption to ever more faster market changes - I think this is extremely interesting.

But, same situation with CV lacking a position as a Scrum Master so far, and no experience in IT. And anyway, for a Scrum Master telling the Development Team anything about IT is crossing the red line, isn't it? I think having the right mindset - should be a great measure for recruiters. At least this is my experience in companies. When I recruited employees, I always looked forward to their enthusiasm and placed it over experience (at least over job titles). 

I think we have the right "Time to Market" situation in Germany at the moment and recruiters should invest more in the "Ability to Innovate" and "Unrealized Value" :)

Cheers,

Igor

Hi Igor, 

Self-organization is a core principles of truly agile teams, and so is measuring their success on the basis of evidence :-) Would you be interested in a Scrum Master internship to get some hands-on experience of Professional Scrum? If you are, contact Stephen or me on LinkedIn. 

Johannes

Q: What does scrum master internship means? Do you have no salary or just an allowance if you are on scrum master internship?

I read all the above discussion about changing profiles into Scrum mater is good but here I share my personal experience which happened with me..Scrum Master's role is still growing in the IT market. There are very few certified scrum masters in Indian IT. People are still wondering if they should move towards becoming a scrum master or not. So this is a position which is in high need of implementing scrum but there are a few people who are having grave knowledge about this role and can implement it. Here I advise you if you have the skill and interest to know anything then don't look back because many companies hire employe based on skill and provided a chance to develop in projects. So, don't get tired start your career as Scrum master. I also learn a scrum master course after completing my B.ed. All said that I couldn't do but I proved that I will. from CETPA and now I became work in a recognizable company.

Hello Johannes. 

Are you still open to offering the internship? I hope you don’t mind if I contact you.

Stephen, it’s great to see your journey and that your efforts yielded fruit! Awesome!!