How To Build A Career As A Scrum Master
Or is the position only a career springboard?
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A typical question in job interviews is, “What do you want to have achieved in 5 years?” The question is easy to answer if you’re starting your career path. For example, you start as a “Junior,” gain experience, take on more responsibility, and after five years, you might be a “Senior,” Team Lead, Project Manager, etc. But the question is already harder to answer if you are an experienced Scrum Master.
Nevertheless, the question is relevant in job interviews and in general: What is your goal as a Scrum Master? What do you want to achieve? Is there a career path?
The basics
After starting as a Scrum Master, the following skills are essential for your career:
- Learn and apply facilitation methods.
- Develop coaching skills.
- Learn about scaling frameworks.
- Build and participate in communities of practice.
- Develop training and be a trainer.
- Be the Scrum Master for teams at different stages (teams new to Scrum, teams that have been working within the Scrum framework for some time).
- Take over mentoring (e.g., for new Scrum Masters).
What comes next?
There are some career opportunities:
- Become an Agile Coach in the company and coach other Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and management.
- Become a Line Manager.
- Take on the role of Product Owner. If you have been a Scrum Master in one area for a long time, you may have gained such deep4 product knowledge that you can become a Product Owner.
- Work as an Agile Release Train Engineer (RTE) within the Scaled Agile Framework.
- Change companies to learn about new industries and technologies.
- Work as a freelancer to have a wider choice of industries/teams.
It is essential to have goals that seem worthwhile and attractive. What do you think about the mentioned options?
