Scrum Master Career Path
Hey Community!
I have been in this dedicated position in since April last year and I have been incredibly happy lately with my job description & daily activities which made me wonder what the options are for the future, to be a bit more specific what should I aim for down the line 5-8 years?
The way i envisioned this initially is 3-5 years of working as a SM to get that "seniority" but I don't know what usually happens afterwards.
Thank you for the feedback and have a great day!
I'm in my 18th year as a Scrum Master and have achieved no seniority whatsoever - I have no concept of that or what it would look like. It's just been a matter of trying to get better at the job.
What benefit would seniority have for the job of helping teams be more productive through self-management and self-organization? Seniority is a concept that organizations use for their hierarchical structure to facilitate pay scales.
I'm also going to ask about "down the line 5-8 years". If you are truly embracing the agile practices of empiricism, why would you plan for something that far in the future? Can you predict changes to economy, industry, technology that would impact your current work?
Another point I'd like to make is that the "job description & daily activities" you have are probably not the same as those of people with similar job descriptions at other companies. The job title of Scrum Master is used in a lot of ways by companies that may or may not fully embrace Scrum. So for us to try and give you advice would be difficult without knowing what is expected of you and what of those expectations you enjoy.
I will say that the job of Scrum Master has had a lot of changes over the last 10 years that I have been involved in it. The Scrum Master role has evolved in the Scrum Guide as well.
My advice is to inspect your current job frequently, adapt your job and career goals as needed, work some more, repeat. That way in 5-8 years you will still be doing relevant work for the organization in which you work.
You mention "job description & daily activities", but what results do you see?
These could be ripple effects on individuals, the product, the organization, etc. They might sometimes be vague, and might be hard to trace back to yourself with 100% certainty.
Or they may be specific learnings or changes of behaviour you see in others. Sometimes you will be fortunate enough to have someone thank you or at least acknowledge the influence you had.
Whatever results you see, if you are embracing continuous improvement for your organization, your Scrum Team and yourself, I expect the kind of results to evolve, both over the short and long term.
If you start now, you have almost 5 years to discover what you want to be achieving in 5 years. But don't lost sight of the near future either.