New Scrum Master - How do you start?

Starting as a Scrum Master without any experience behind is a challenge. The SM role is an evolutionary role, you start small and then you develop yourself, you polish your knowledge and experience. Learning and experimenting play a great role in this situation, but are not the only ones. See article

I see two types of Starts: soft and hard.

Soft Start takes place in companies where you already work. They are companies that already started the Agile Transformation and you have the opportunity to learn from inside. You can start gathering the first Agile experience through the followings:

  • perform job rotations
  • apply to an internal job (PO, SM or developer within an Agile Team)
  • join Scrum meetings (review, daily) - talk to people within the team and explain the reason behind, they will be for sure supporting your enthusiasm.
  • learn from the internal communities. Any company going through an Agile Transformation should own an Agile Library
  • join Agile clubs/x-Change/Agile Talks
  • look for SM/ Agile Coaches to advise you
  • go for an internal training
Hard Start is when you decide for Agile and you start from a green field, no connection with Agile whatsoever. In this case you can do the following:

  • go for the CSM Certification from Scrum Alliance. You cannot expect you are a good-to-go Scrum Master, but it is a professional training that will get you in the topic. There are many companies that offer SM Trainings, but I highly recommend Scrum Alliance
  • stop talking, start learning - learning without experimenting is not 100% learning, but still is something you can start with. I call it Minimum Viable Knowledge - the least amount of knowledge you need to have in order to start as a fresh Scrum Master
  • attend Agile meetups - it is a great opportunity to learn from other people, how they did it, get connected
  • Passion First - use your passion as a silver bullet for your further development. There are companies that hire fresh SM and grow together. In this case they look after passionate and enthusiastic SMs. However please expect that the salary is a bit lower. 
If you want to become a Scrum Master, there is nothing that can stop you. However you need to work hard to get there!

Good luck!

Anything else you would add?

Here are some more interesting Articles on the topic:
Agile Resume in a Fast Changing Environment
Agile People Who Inspire Me

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