For me, job fit starts long before the interview. It’s right there on the page: reading the job posting.
Like user stories, I think of job postings as placeholders for conversation. I won’t understand more about the role until I talk to people about it.
However, I can get a pretty good idea about what I’m getting into just by reading the description.
As I’m reading the job description for potential roles like Agile Coach or Scrum Master, here’s what I’m curious about:
The title
What are they calling the role? This can tell you about the culture and maturity of the organization.
Are they calling the role a Scrum Master or Agile Coach?
Or is it some variation like an Agile Project Manager or Agile Program Manager?
When I see the latter, a couple of scenarios come to mind:
- The organization is new to Agile and might not understand the role of a Coach or Scrum Master.
This is exactly why they’re hiring someone to come in and coach them. - An Agile Coach or Scrum Master is not seen as a legitimate full-time position.
In my favorite Scrum Master job, my official title was Scrum Master/Project Manager. I was later promoted to Project Manager.
I was as much a Project Manager as the Software Engineers on my teams were Project Managers. That is to say, I was not one.
I advocated for a title change to Agile Coach which would have more accurately reflected my responsibilities. But the organization was not in a place to name it as a role.
Considering I was happy with everything else, changing my title was not a battle I decided to further spend energy on pursuing. - They want a Project Manager or Program Manager.
A Scrum Master is not the same as a Project Manager or Program Manager. These require different skills and mindsets and come with completely different sets of responsibilities. Responsibilities that might be at odds with each other.
When I was in a different role called a Scrum Master/Agile Program Manager, it turned out that meant that I was expected to drop being a Scrum Master for months at a time to jump in and program manage new initiatives for the company.
The best way to know where a company is coming from when you see these titles is to ask in your interview. “Why are you hiring a Scrum Master? What does the day-to-day look like in the role? Tell me more about the maturity of your organization in Agile. Is there a PMO? How does this role interact with it? What is the growth path of this role?”
Answers to those questions will get you closer to clarity on confusing or contradicting job titles.
The language
Specifically “grooming” vs. “refining” the backlog: what language does the posting use?
The word “groom” was removed from the Scrum Guide in 2013. If a company uses “grooming” in their post, it might be an indicator that they are following outdated practices or are at least using an outdated vocabulary.
Same with “self-organizing” vs. “self-managing,” which was updated in 2020.
The responsibilities
This is what I spend the most time on and where I find the most valuable information on the expectations of the role.
Here are some real examples taken from Scrum Master and Agile Coach listings and my accompanying hypotheses:
- Partner with key stakeholders in the Marketing function to build a project plan and identify all the essential milestones for project completion.
Hypothesis: This company is looking for a Project Manager.
- The Scrum Master helps plan the work by determining team capacity, working with other team members to break the committed work into stories, assigning the stories to resources across 5 sprints.
Hypothesis: This company is looking for a micro-managing Project Manager.
- Coordinate the construction of product roadmaps with Product Strategists and serve as the central interface between groups working together on product strategy, design, development, testing and overall quality management.
Hypothesis: This company is looking for a Product or Program Manager.
- The Scrum Master ensures that everyone understands and follows architecture guidelines.
Hypothesis: This company wants an architect.
- The Scrum Master will be working with 4-5 Scrum teams.
Hypothesis: This company does not understand the capacity of an effective Scrum Master.
Or, my favorite:
It’s not all doom and gloom. There are quite a few postings out there that excite me:
Our Scrum Master is responsible for facilitating cross-functional delivery for no more than two Agile (Scrum/Kanban) teams.
Lead the way on shaping a positive team culture.
Coach the team members in self-management and cross-functionality.
Be a model for experimentation and fast learning to discover new and better ways of working.
Create a safe environment for teams to foster true collaboration and innovation, guiding teams toward functioning as a single unit instead of just a collection of individuals and to set the tone for the team’s workday with a positive attitude.
As you’re reading a job’s responsibilities, ask yourself, “What is it within this role that resonates with me?”
Tools and frameworks
Scrum Masters are more than just Jira jockeys.
While some job postings are kind enough to clearly spell out that’s all they want in a Scrum Master, you might have to read between the lines on others to figure out how much time you’ll spend managing tools and whether that’s something you’re interested in doing.
You also want to pay attention to what frameworks they’re using.
If a role is asking you to be certified in SAFe, for example, and SAFe isn’t a framework you’re confident would bring value to an organization, read the job description carefully to determine if they’re asking for certification because they’re looking for someone who is well-rounded and can take from different frameworks, especially at scale. Or if they are looking for someone who can coach, implement, and evangelize SAFe within their organization full time.
Location
“Remote until covid” isn’t a location. It’s not even a real sentence.
If you’re interested in fully remote work, read the description carefully on jobs that claim to be fully remote for things like “PLEASE NOTE THIS POSITION WILL ALLOW CONSULTANT TO MOSTLY WORK REMOTELY. HOWEVER, THE CONSULTANT NEEDS TO BE LOCAL TO NYC AND ABLE TO TRAVEL TO OUR OFFICE WITHOUT ISSUE, AS NEEDED.”
Time zone
Related to remote work, check the time zone of jobs you’re interested in. If it’s not listed in the description, you can try searching for where the company is headquartered and where their other offices are located.
This, as well as asking about working hours and global distribution of team members in your interviews, can tell you if you’re guaranteed late nights or early mornings in your future.
Benefits
The benefits a company offers can inform you about the company’s culture, including the level of trust they have for their employees and how much they value their mental and physical health (and that of their families).
I’m lucky to have worked for companies that truly did stand behind unlimited PTO. Having heard stories of companies where that’s not the case, I would ask questions in the interviews about the company’s culture, work/life balance, and examples of how they support their employees’ well-being.
If benefits are not listed in the job description, try looking on Glassdoor or Built In.
Before even starting a job search, take time to figure out what it is that you’re looking for in your next role and your next company – and what your dealbreakers are. This work will save you time and the heartache of a potential job or company mismatch.
Good luck in your search!
Photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash
The first “You’re not a Jira Lackey” article I read. Sadly, so may companies think this is exactly what scrum masters are. The ad for “AKA: Supreme Master of the Board” is still up. It’s been three months.
Forgot the link, sorry: https://vitalitychicago.com/blog/hey-mersino-youre-not-their-jira-lackey/