I want to be a Scrum Master but.....
Hi everyone.
It's nearly 2 years since I wrote this blog post:
https://www.scrum.org/forum/scrum-forum/30548/changed-my-life-become-sc…
I went from asking about how to get a job as a Scrum Master to interviewing Scrum Masters for positions in my company.
I still get about 1 or 2 LinkedIn requests a month from people who read the blog post also asking for advice, but I thought I'd share some insights into what I've found.
1. Your passion and your approach to things are 95% of you getting the job. The amount of applications and covering letters I have seen that don't mention why you want to be a Scrum Master is frankly staggering. Tell me why Scrum is important to you and tell me why you want to work with us. Sending copy paste cvs is a waste of your time and mine.
2. This came to me a while ago whilst giving advice to someone in America who was looking for a position and I suggested why not approach job searching in an agile way. Create a product backlog about things you can do to meet your goal, decide your sprint length, inspect and adapt. Use this forum to get feedback.
3. Network. I got my job because my boss took a chance and saw my blog posts here. Why not do the same thing. Use the forums as an opportunity to get some real good advice. Writing about your experiences may help other people too. If you find enough like minded people why not create a group to share ideas and job opportunities.
4. Take a step back. This might not work for everyone but if you don't have enough experience to start as a SM why not ask for an internship. I was 34 when I did mine but I learnt more in that internship in 4 weeks on the job than all the reading I did on the subject. It also led me to get a full time position.
Anyway I hope some of you find this helpful.