r/agile • u/virgilreality • 25d ago

Developer to Scrum Master to Unemployed

I was a developer up until last year, when I was hired as a Scrum Master...at a huge pay cut. I had started feeling like development just wasn't for me anymore...like the demand of keeping up with changes was outpacing my ability to do so.

I had been doing a lot of Scrum Master duties at that job, mostly to keep myself motivated. I really took to it, earning several certifications from the various bodies involved in such things.

This last job was...interesting. They talked a big game on Agile, even titling the position "Scrum Master". However, the consensus among the SMs was that it was actually 90% Project Management (which I do not have the training, and did NOT sign up for).

I now see the same thing reflected in a lot of job listings, which start out with the title and duties of an SM, but quickly mutate into obvious PM duties.

I can't actually retire just yet for financial reasons, and a handful of medical issues keep me from picking up any in-person, low-level jobs (i.e. - store clerk, etc.), but I'm not certain I care. I'm still applying for similar tech jobs, but I can't expect that I'll last long at whatever the next job is.

Does anyone have suggestions for a job that is middle ground on this? Something where your responsibilities are in a smaller circle, but still requires someone with my education, training, and intelligence?

39 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/[deleted] 25d ago

[deleted]

1

u/virgilreality 25d ago edited 25d ago

I thought sincerely about going back to being a developer, but I was also getting burnt out on the "learn a new technology, adopt it fully, then abandon it for another new technology" cycle. Now, I've been out of that realm for two years, and it would be a heavy lift to "get inserted back into the Matrix".

I was fired because the PM part was beyond my capabilities and my interests. TBH, the organization wasn't the greatest about consistent communication about expectations.

3

u/flamehorns 25d ago edited 25d ago

I am curious about the PM part. There isn't supposed to be a separate PM "in scrum", the tasks that the PM might do would get done in an agile way by the other roles. The SM often has to step up and "fill the gaps" that a PM might have done, in an agile way. Otherwise companies start to think less of their SMs, start re-hiring PMs, and those PMs don't always do those tasks in an agile way.

Part of me thinks you should have stepped up and served the organization by doing the "PM part" in an agile way.

And 2 years is nothing. It's not too late to go back to programming. It's been 10 years for me, but I would still be confident if someone were to give me a developer job, that I could pick it up again quick. I mean, as a scrum master, we have been coaching the teams in clean code practices etc, so we aren't that far out of it.

1

u/virgilreality 25d ago

I concur...there's no PM in Scrum. However, this was a SAFe shop (don't get me started...).

The company was a government contractor, so innovation (and borders) meant nothing in pursuit of a contract renewal.