Degree needed?

You do not need a degree to be a Product Owner or Scrum Master; however, whether you can be gainfully employed as a Scrum Master or Product Owner depends solely upon your potential employers. Have you tried applying for jobs? Have you talked to recruiters? Most job "requirements" are flexible if applicants are able to demonstrate skill (or sometimes just enthusiasm). Are you open to taking an internship to gain experience? Have you talked to recruiters or interviewers about the utility of the certifications that you have pursued?

You might also look to local groups of people practicing Scrum in various roles. They may be able to provide you information on how to make yourself marketable to employers in your preferred area of expertise.

Hello Lauren, 

first of all, thank you for your answer and suggestions and, not to forget, your time. 

I have applied to jobs and was rejected. I must say, that Germany is sometimes an odd country.

Digitalization, agile working and other subjects have not really arrived yet. 

One example is, that the speed of the internet is one of the worst in Europe (Rank 46) and when taking the train from Berlin to Hamburg (the two largest cities in Germany) there's often no connection.

The government doesn't do a lot and four years ago, our chancellor Mrs. Merkel said, that the Internet is a new phenomenon.

Therefor there's still not a real mindset for digitalization. 

In the course I had to coach "collègues" during the Scrum test, because they don't speak English bacaude they don't care. 

We're in Germany and in Germany we speak German. On television and in cinemas verything is synchronized into German. 

The country where I come from, The Netherlands, is one of the leaders when it comes to the digital revolution. Together with Sweden, Denmark and Norway. 

I've done some research and have visited Dutch and English job boards and in the job ads there the demands were empathy, being able to work in cross functional teams, being able to work with diverse teams, etc. 

I also found posts from other expatriates about their experiences when applying in Germany. 

I have to live with the fact, that Germany is different and neither agile nor diverse or future-ready.

 I'll continue attending meet-ups and other events, to enhance my network. 

Maybe, that might be a better approach. 

Again, thanks a lot for your help, dear Lauren! 

Greetings from Berlin, 

Rob

Goedemorgen Rob,

Indeed, there is no degree needed. Most important is understanding what the role encompases. This goes both for you and for the organization. And I agree, Germany is relatively odd when it comes to this. I see a lot of SM applications that ask for extensive technical skills as a demand. Which ofcourse is absolutely not needed and often is even beneficial to NOT have technical skills as it keeps the SM from medeling with the content issues of the team.

Gewoon in Nederland blijven werken, genoeg te doen:)

I echo that no degree is needed to be able to do the work of a Scrum Master.  But given that and your explanation, I will say that every organization gets to determine the criteria for the people that they are going to pay a salary.  If the organization says you must have a degree, then to work for them you need a degree.  I have no knowledge of Germany and their job markets but I do know that in other countries you can find jobs like this without a degree.  A lot of jobs in the US will say things like "Degree in Underwater Fire Prevention or equivalent experience".  

Since you have moved countries once, if you really want to pursue a career in this field you could look at surrounding countries and see if there are jobs there that do not require a degree.  It is extreme but it definitely demonstrates the inspect/adapt behavior that we all live by.