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Finding SM roles - my chicken and egg problem

Last post 11:29 am February 7, 2017 by Shankara Srinivasan
4 replies
Shankara Srinivasan
12:30 pm February 6, 2017

Hello,

I would appreciate any pointers on how a freelancer could land his first Scrum Master role.

I am a freelance software engineer who has performed a number of roles building and shipping software over 12+ years. The more I learnt about scrum, the more I've wanted to transition to a scrum master as I found resonance with the philosophy. To this end, I got PSM-I certified with an excellent score hoping to signal my understanding of scrum.

I have tried and failed to get my ex-employers to adopt scrum, and had to contend with using elements of agile in waterfall environments. So while many of my tasks mapped to an SM's responsibility, I never had " scrum master" as an official job description. Recruiters don't seem consider me for SM roles as I don't have prior SM experience.Widening my search throughout UK/EU (as a UK citizen) and being willing to take a pay cut to be an intern/junior scrum master haven't helped. Would love to hear thoughts on what I am missing.

Thanks in advance for your time and for any tips.

Ian Mitchell
06:29 pm February 6, 2017

It may be necessary to take an "agile PM" role in the first instance. That's what I had to do. I carefully documented the shortcomings of such a role in my CV. This analysis opened the door to more credible Scrum Master positions.

Sanjay Saini
08:51 am February 7, 2017


Transforming your current/ex-employer to Scrum may be your first assignment. Don't think that the new employer is going to be easy one, you will face the same challenges so start your journey from wherever you are now.

Shankara Srinivasan
11:27 am February 7, 2017

Thanks for your thoughts. It's encouraging to see that even veteran agile practitioners started with similar challenges. Not sure if the supply of PMs with scrum master experience is greater than current demand, as I've been told that lack of SM experience is the reason I am not considered for some agile PM roles that have a waterfall/scrum cross over.

btw, I am a big fan of your scrum shack(https://sites.google.com/site/wicmitchell/) - it helped me massively for my PSM-I exams and I've enjoyed your "Agile Development in practice" too. Thanks again.

Shankara Srinivasan
11:29 am February 7, 2017

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, transforming ex-employers or potential clients is harder than usual since I am freelancer and the remit of my contracts would be to follow my employer's preferred delivery methods. Of course this is something I shall keep in mind.

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