Are you currently considering a career change? People change careers for various reasons, including seeking work-life balance, positive work culture, new challenges, and better pay. It’s important to note that changing careers can be a bold decision that requires careful consideration.
In this article, I will guide those considering transitioning into a Scrum master career. First, I must applaud you for making this decision, not because I was once a Scrum master, not because I’m an Agile Coach, and not because of the reasons you may be thinking. I’m applauding you because it takes someone with a servant-leadership mindset to consider a career as a Scrum master.
Before I dive into my ultimate road map to becoming and thriving as a successful Scrum master, please permit me to dive a little deeper into some of the day-to-day responsibilities of a Scrum master based on my personal experience.
So, who is a Scrum master?
A Scrum master coaches teams, whether a software development team or another team using Scrum, in adopting and effectively implementing Scrum practices to deliver value. Some of your daily responsibilities as a Scrum master will include the following.
- Ensuring your team (s) understands the Scrum framework and employs its practices, values, and principles in delivering value.
- You will partner with the development team to drive effective collaboration and cross-team communication while planning, implementing, and delivering value.
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- Facilitating important Scrum events (Sprint planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective) are crucial planning, inspection, and adaptation points for Scrum teams.
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- Mentoring team members on agile principles
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- You will collaborate with the team to remove and resolve daily impediments that have the potential to impede the team’s progress.
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- Helping the teams and team members improve empirically using quantitative and qualitative data.
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- Partnering with leadership to improve business agility within the organization.
It’s always tempting as a Coach to start teaching different Scrum concepts, but I will save that discussion for another day and focus on what I had in mind today to give you a simple guide or road map to becoming a Scrum master.
What is my blueprint for you to become and thrive as a Scrum master?
Learn the Concepts.
Become Certified.
Proceed to become a certified professional. It shows your dedication and commitment to the field or discipline. Most hiring managers generally prefer candidates with certifications. Thinking about what certifications to take, I recommend a few and the very best.
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- SAFe Scrum master certification (Scaled Agile, framework for scaling business agility).
- Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
- Professional Scrum Master (PSM)
Gain hands-on & real-life experience.
Experience is what Businesses and hiring managers are looking for. They are interested in seeing how you have effectively used your soft skills to pivot teams in a positive direction. They want to learn how you have built self-organizing and high-performing teams. They want to see how you have partnered with senior leadership and key decision-makers to transform business processes, how you have helped optimize the flow of work, and how you have implemented lean processes. Also, practice Scrum daily, and remember to hone your interpersonal skills. All this is possible with the help of a boot camp or a good Coach. Please invest in a Successful Coach willing to spend that time with you to expose you to real-world challenges.
Invest in your network.
They say your network is your net worth. As you’re investing in yourself, developing the right knowledge and tools, being around the right people will help reinforce your commitment and serve as a learning tool. You never know; your first or subsequent job offer could come from someone within your network. Create a solid presence on LinkedIn, share your knowledge and perspective on topics, and interact with other like-minded professionals.
Invest in continuous learning.
Learning never stops. Be open to the boundaries of Scrum guide or Agile. In today’s world, especially IT, disciplines are intensely interconnected. Learn a new skill: security, operations, java, data analysis. During my career, I worked and interacted with many teams and different Scrum masters. A common challenge I often observe is that Scrum masters who work with software development teams find it challenging to understand the software development life cycle (SDLC). You must understand the process to coach a process. What happens after a developer writes a code and what happens after that, and the nuances in between will help you discuss on the same frequency with your developers. Please invest in learning.
Stay Resilient and be Patient.
It’s going to be challenging. You will encounter rejections in interviews, from co-workers, and in the community of practices, but what will separate you from the quitter is resiliency. Nothing worth your time comes just that easy. During my early days, I coached friends who successfully transitioned from healthcare disciplines, and they could pick up jobs even before me. I believed in myself and stayed focused. I continued learning and took some crash courses on DevOps and Java, and by the time I had the offer, I was solid as a bull. I was surprised to see experienced Scrum masters reaching out for advice, and it boiled down to the fact that I stayed resilient and knew my resiliency and the quest for continuous learning would pay dividends in the future.
Learning never ends, my friend. You stop learning when you stop breathing.

Are you interested in SAFe Scrum Master, Product Owner, Release Train Engineer (RTE) training, certification, and coaching?
Explore our training and certification page to start your career today. Refer someone to get 10% of fee paid.
I want to be trained as a scrum master in your outfit. How can your organization helps me to become scrum master please. Thanks
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