Having more than 11 years experience in various technologies as a developer, i am now looking for 1 step ahead in my career. Though i have nothing to complain about, i don't want to be developer for whole life. When i imagine myself at the age of 40, i want to be at some leading position, not the one who just works as directed.
I have an opportunity to become Scrum Master but i don't have enough knowledge. I can learn it but before i start, i want to know whether this switch of career worth a trial? Is Scrum master better than Developer? What's the average salary of a scrum master? Is this really leading position or equivalent to developer?
Also, being a mother of 2 young kids i would like to have some flexibility in job. I have always got flexible jobs so far, will I get same flexibility being a Scrum Master?
Which Is Better - Software Developer or Scrum Master?
Comments
so if i keep doing what i am doing and side by side learn Scrum things, will it help me to transit to some leading position ?
It's not a progression I've seen,
I would imagine you would have gone from developer, to senior developer, lead developer, and ending with architect or development manager. In a really big company you might have also moved to project management.
But scrum master? I thought that's just the term for the person who knows the most about scrum in each morning/weekly meeting, not a full-time job, unless it refers to going from company to company teaching scrum to teams.
Like any career change I wouldn't do it unless there is a solid job opportunity with written dollar figures attached.
This is kind of my understanding of it as well, most companies like to run lean as well, so instead of having a scrum master on a project with a project manager, they'll just get the project manager to do both.
I'm guessing OP was given the opportunity internally though? Makes me wonder if company is looking in the agile/scrum direction in which case they may be doing new things and breaking new ground (lots of immediate work)? I'm assuming OP will go from scrum master to Project Manager for agile/scrum projects after a while? But looking externally, I only ever see scrum masters come in for coaching teams.
Thanks for response. My career graph is not straight Up line, it's a zig-zag. Developer —> Senior Developer —> Team Leader —> Developer(moved to Australia) —> Senior S/W Engineer —> Azure Developer(moved interstate). I am not confident to become Team Leader now because that requires very strong, up to date technical knowledge and i don't upgrade myself that often now. Though Project manager does not require much technical knowledge, i have never seen someone jumping from developer to manager.
I have heard that a lot of women aren’t self-confident about taking on better roles (or asking for fair pay), and so we end up with - lot of well paid and substandard men leading teams.
There are some really excellent books by leading women in tech to read or listen to. Regardless of what you choose maybe that would be a good next step?
Confidence can be acquired like any other skill and is arguably just as important.
If there are no other suggestions then perhaps Reset by Ellen Pao. But hopefully there’s other more uplifting ones too.
I asked some successful women in tech for their book recommendations:
- Crushing the IT Gender Bias: Thriving as a Woman in Technology
- Know Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You're Worth
Other comments:
- In most cases if I feel money is the issue I just find another gig that pays more. But more pay, and management roles, are completely different things. You need to set your goals and decide what you enjoy and what you want to do.
- Get a mentor, a mentor is better than a book.
I know you didn't ask for this but… I work in a tech field with a lot of skilled and successful women so I felt it might add some perspective.
@Untameable: Thanks for your honest response! That's the reality of tech world, women need to do extra efforts to survive the race. I always want to be best version of myself and money is secondary but i'll definitely fight for my right, my worth.
if you like coding stick with it. be a technical lead of a team
scrum master IMHO would be as boring as all ****
manager would be not hands on and boring as ****don't pick an occupation cos of the wage (within reason), stick to something you like, nothing wrong with coding forever if you like it
They are not mutually exclusive. Have you completed any Agile / Scrum Master training?
Being a Scrum Master is not a full time role, it is something you do to help guide and focus a team (not manage). I am a full time Software Dev which takes on the Scrum Master role within my team. It could be argued this is slightly more responsibly but it is not managing the team.
If you want to progress, look to up-skill and move into a Technical Lead Role or if you are happy to not code then look for a Delivery Lead / Capability Lead role.
We call them Scum Master :)
League or Union? League scrums are pretty lacklaster
You will need to be honest with yourself, why don't you want to be a developer when you are 40? Why do you want to be in a leadership position? Once you have some specific answers to those questions it can help you figure out what aspects you like, what you don't and look at what roles best suit.
Glassdoor - Scrum Master then narrow down the location.
As for flexibility, that's more a company than a role restriction.
From my experience in Sydney, dedicated scrum masters are a nice to have role, they are always the first to be cut, and the goal is to move the position into the team. I mean, from a high performing team perspective, you want the activities a scrum master would do as activities team members pick up anyway. When I interview and hire, developers with agile or scrum master experience/certifications are a plus.
Many companies will pay for you to do the scrum master cert too, ask your manager for what training budget you have.I've been a tech lead for a number of years, the technical knowledge I need most is the basics, how to properly structure code, how to debug code when something doesn't work as expected, explaining why tests are important and how to properly cover something.
The rest of my time it's all soft skills stuff, fostering communication, upskilling through mentoring and coaching, helping translate between business and technical groups. If you take on people leadership as part of a role you'll have a lot more focused mentoring/coaching too.Also be careful you don't judge being 'x' at one company and think the 'x' role is that way in all companies, think about the aspects you enjoy, and look at what roles have that aspect, and when interviewing remember it's a two way street, ask them about what the role does, how that role fits into the company to make sure it does the aspects you enjoy.
I want to move to leadership position because i want to run a team by my ideas. I want people to know me as an important part of company not someone who sits in a corner just doing coding.
That's a good point that Scrum Master is first to be cut off when required. Based on all comments, i understand that gaining knowledge and certificate of Scrum master is good but not the position of Scrum Master. Now, i am keen to look for Tech Leader kinda role. The only reason i didn't think about this role is that i don't upgrade myself too often with latest technologies and I always have to double check with other more knowledgeable team members before i take any decision. Do you think it is ok for a team leader to rely on team members to take decision? What do you do in this situation? Other than this, i am very well in managing team to deliver on time. I can suggest several solutions but always struggle to take decision.
Also, I don't think i can take this role in my current company unless current tech leader quit and other team members prefer to stick to development. If i try for this role in other company, will they consider me based on my experience of development and no experience in leading?Disclaimer: I don't know you other than the few paragraphs you've typed into this thread, I will suggest some things and leave it up to you to decide if they apply, and ignore what doesn't apply.
I want people to know me as an important part of company not someone who sits in a corner just doing coding.
A title won't change that, it's your actions that will make you an important part of the company, and you don't need a title to start.
Start out helping those around you, if they ask you for help, make the time to sit, listen and try to help. If you were unable to help, make sure you follow up once it's fixed so you know how to fix it next time and can help the next person who asks you.
If they can't get it fixed, maybe you can put in a bit of extra time at lunch, or on the train home, looking into possible solutions. What I've found is most people just want a solution, they aren't interested in going on the journey to solve the problem. While it's some extra work for you, the more you do it, the easier it gets.Make sure your attitude is pure when helping someone, don't put them down for not knowing, remember there was probably a time you didn't know something equally as basic.
As you start to become known as someone to seek help from, you will find you don't scale well, look for tools, like a wiki, to start documenting the problems and how to fix. If your company doesn't have a wiki, this is something you can suggest, there are plenty of free ones, you can install them easily on any machine, and assisting communication is an amazing way to help and be known.
Depending on company structure, how work is split etc, you might be able to get a higher level view of your project, if your team works on something you know another team worked on, maybe go and just mention to the other team you guys are picking it up and working on it, are there any 'gotchas' they think you should know, that sort of thing.
From there people will probably find the extra communication helpful in reducing problems arising, you can suggest guilds/communities, these are groups of like-minded people meeting regularly to share about what is happening in their neck of the woods.
By this point you probably have a lot of knowledge about your work environment, you have lots of communication channels around, you can start mentoring people, teaching them some of the fundamental skills you've learned.
Now if the lead quits, they will probably, along with many of your co-workers be recommending you as the new lead.
If i try for this role in other company, will they consider me based on my experience of development and no experience in leading?
No, I interview plenty of people trying to move up a level, what I want them to demonstrate is how they are already doing parts of the role, as if they have an excuse for not walking the walk now, they'll have an excuse for not doing it when they have the official title.
i don't upgrade myself too often with latest technologies
Even in start-ups, which are renowned as being fast-paced, the underlying technologies don't change very frequently, provided you have solid development fundamentals, you will learn what a new company has fairly quickly.
I always have to double check with other more knowledgeable team members before i take any decision
That is a bit of a worry depending on why you do it, you'll need to be honest with yourself. If you do this because you really don't know which is right, think if you should know, if you are only new for example, sure, you will need to run things by people who have been there for years and know the system. If you've been there for years yourself, maybe you aren't cut out for a technical lead role.
If you do this simply because you don't want people to think you are bossy, a know it all, out to get the job of the lead etc, then you probably need to quit worrying, suck it up and make some decision. Spoiler, you will get some wrong, that is just part of life, do a retro in your head to see if there was a way you could have predicted this, was there a decision along the way that would have altered the outcome for the better, etc.
For example, I am working with a Java dev who is building a micro-service, I don't know Java, nor do I know any of the frameworks they are using to build the micro-services, but I know REST and I know how that API would be useful, so I can guide them on the design of this, and leave it to them to handle the implementation details.
Or an Objective-C developer has a bug in their app they can't figure out, I sit with them to help them debug it, I ask them to put logs in various places so we can get an idea of the execution path. I don't know Objective-C, nor iOS, but I know the basic syntax of a number of languages, so can follow roughly, and leave it up to the developer to put the code into log out what I want to see. Then we step through that info to help them find the problem, I'm not capable of debugging and fixing the Objective-C bug, but I understand how to debug something and guide them on the journey of revealing the right information to help them solve the bug.
Most of the time though, I need to know the right answer, and how to get there, as I'm reviewing pull requests to do targeted upskilling. Or planning how we can migrate to newer versions, refactor out tech debt, improve code health.
i am very well in managing team to deliver on time
If you do find that you are lacking technically, maybe going in the Product Owner, or Project Manager route is worth exploring.
Hope it helps.
Thanks, this all makes sense to me! After reading all replies, i understand that i should put some efforts in the direction of Project Manager instead of Scrum Master. Thanks for your time!
I do not have anything valuable to add except that I misread the title the first time as Scrotum Master. I was very confused for a second there.
Scrum Master isn't really a real job, it only exists if the team or project uses "Scrum" as their Agile methodology and there are literally tens of them. I think the proper job title is either an Iteration Manager (IM) or Project Manager (PM). Having said that, it is really a step down to even consider the role, they are meant to be the one supporting the team, think of them as assistance. They are not really "managers" in the sense where they are your line manager and you report to them.. No, far from it. With 11 years of experience, you are more than qualified for a Lead position such as a Technical Lead or Team Lead. Also the name of "Scrum Master" as a job title sounds like a joke!
Thanks shirotech, really appreciate that.
I'm a bit late to the party but just wanted to give in my two cents as this topic resonates so much with my career and life aspirations.
I'm a woman in tech too. Like you, I now have more than a decade of experiences up my sleeve, however, due to various misalignment and inadequate management, I didn't get the career progressions I wanted earlier on. Despite carefully constructing my progression plan and the tasks I wanted to do year after year, my promotions and pay rises were always overlooked. My managers and everyone in my team all know my capabilities, and I was always given free reign to do any tasks I wanted to do, but never any recognition. Over the last year I did a lot self-reflecting and these are the things I've learnt which I believe will benefit you also.
Mindset - be clear about your goals and time box when ideally you'd want to achieve it. Set out some contingency plans so that if you miss that timeline, what are your next steps. I can see from your post that you've already started the process of advancing your career, but there's so much more to that once you get the traction going.
Knowledge - ask your workplace if they can send you on training courses. Nothing beats knowledge and you will feel so much more empowered, you'll be amazed at how many Aha! moments you will encounter once you connect real life situations with textbook methods. In some cases, not every workplace recognise learning and might not send you on something right away, then you can skill yourself up by watching and learning from online resources. Udemy gets featured here all the time, there's also Lynda, Coursera just to name a few.
Knock-backs - Talk to your boss about your intention to move forward. I have always been vocal about my skillset and my intentions but what I've reflected this time is that I have approached things in a round-about way, I wasn't direct. In marriage, you want to clear about expectations with your husband, you won't say "honey, the bin is full" and expect him to know that you want him to empty the bin. Same goes for managers, you can't say things like "I'm really good at XYZ" and expect your boss to say "Sure, I'll give you a pay rise of 123". Get to the point, prepare a presentation of what value you can add, and finish it off with a proposal of what new role you want and why, and make it known that you also wish to discuss a pay rise. However, at the end of the day, you also should prepare yourself to be knocked back. I asked for a Product Owner role with very good arguments on why, but I was told I can't get the role because the team doesn't understand Agile as well as I do and they think I'm going to control development. That was the moment I knew I needed to move on. Sometimes changing jobs is the only way to get the role you want and the remuneration you're after, so don't be afraid to go down that route. You'll get some more rejections, but as long as you're dedicated and prepare well for your interviews, you'll get your dream job soon enough.
Self-awareness - Remember: you can do anything, but not everything! Have a think about exactly what you want to, if you're unsure about what a Scrum Master really is, watch some courses and do some research online, and decide if that's really for you. It's never good to jump into something just because it's proposed to you, and it's never good to try and do everything even if you know you can do it. Give yourself the time and chance to do the things you do really well, and give others the chance to progress and do some of the things you used to, this way, you can create more transparency and cross-functionality within the team. Like what others have said, Scrum Master isn't really a job title, it's a role which can empower the team and support the team to achieve goals. If this sounds like you, then ask your manager if you can trial this for a sprint. Work with the BA's and the PO to set out the sprint planning and sprint review, then work with the developers to host the retro. Facilitate the daily scrums (or scums) and unblock any issues. Be mindful that you're now moving towards working with people, and Agile is all about collaborating and creating value, so you're doing less technical work but more on the velocity and the dynamics of the team. This can be tricky sometimes being female, I've had my fair share of dinosaurs with 70's mindsets, but it's not all hopeless. There are many conflict management methods you can use and you'll be surprised how useful and how much you can change things with a little proactive-ness. Once you're ready to pursue further, the positions the Scrum Master is generally tied to include Development Managers, Iteration Managers and Project Managers. The Scrum Master is also required to guide and coach the team on Agile, so it pays to know this way of working inside out. This is a servant leader position, you lead the team by serving and supporting them and setting an example starting from yourself.
Lastly, I just want to say you don't need to invest unrealistic hours in any of the roles I mentioned earlier. I know first hand how hard it is to juggle work with family and children, but the beauty of society today is that we've got the support now to go out and achieve our dreams. Take those opportunities and good luck.
You've got this!
a scrum master with experience in the field he's 'master' of is worth $$$