The Agile Job Market: What job seekers and employers need to know

The Agile Job Market:
What Job Seekers and Employers Need to Know
Angela Druckman
Agile Coach and Certified Scrum Trainer
angela@angeladruckman.com
Copyright ©2014 The Druckman Company. All Rights Reserved.

Please join us for final session of this webinar series!
 Webinar #3: Enterprise Agile Coaching: Guiding Organizations
through the Agile Transformation
And stay tuned at the end of this webinar to learn more about
Angela’s new course Professional Agile Coaching®

About Angela
Angela Druckman is an agile coach and
Certified Scrum Trainer. She specializes in
Agile Transformation, helping teams and
organizations all over the world improve
their competitive position and
effectiveness through agility. Whether
working with tiny start-ups or Fortune 100
companies, Angela’s experience and
guidance have helped her clients achieve
extraordinary and measurable success with
their agile practices. Angela is the author of
30 Days to Better Agile.

Follow up from the previous webinar
 How do I get a signed copy of 30 Days to Better Agile?
Is it available as a Kindle book?
 You can get a signed copy of my book directly from me – just
email me. You can find the Kindle version on Amazon
 Can we connect with you on social media?
 Of course!
– LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/angela-druckman/4/337/3b7/
– Twitter: @AngelaDruckman
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AngelaDruckmanCST
 I am in the job market, looking for a position as an
agile coach. Can we stay in touch?
 Definitely! Consider joining my LinkedIn discussion group: Agile
Job Market: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Agile-Job-Market-
6627474?trk=my_groups-b-grp-v

Overview
• How to assess the popular agile certifications, and
what they really give you
• Key interview questions that both sides should be
asking
• Surprising facts about which employers are (and are
not!) truly agile
• Warning signs of “agile in name only”
• Finding the perfect match

Who is Doing Agile?
The short answer: everybody! And they all have
different needs:
• Late adopters need help getting started – and (often) help
catching up
• Current practitioners need help moving passed “advanced
beginner” status
• “Second try” adopters need to the courage to start again
• Advanced practitioners need fresh perspective, techniques
and ideas
• All organizations need to get the “right people on the bus”

A good match between agile employee and employer
requires:
– Honesty
– Clarity about goals
– Awareness and acknowledgement of what you are “getting
into”
– Recognition of the change required
– A plan that allows for development and growth on both
sides

Agile Job Seekers – Getting Ready to
Hit the Market
• First question: should I get certified?
– Short answer: Yes!
• Is this controversial?
– Short answer: Yes!
Here’s why…

The Pros and Cons of Certification
Pro Certification
• You are exposed to valuable
information
• You make excellent contacts
for future opportunities
• You avoid the “missing a
checkbox” problem
Anti Certification
• Certifications are no
guarantee of on-the-job
experience
• People can pass a test and still
go out and do bad things
• Some certifications seem less
about upholding standards
and more about making the
certifying organization rich

Choosing Your Certification(s)
• Start with broad market appeal
• As with college, choose a good instructor over a good course
every time
• Read and evaluate the good and bad reviews
• Recognize every class has value (even if it teaches you what
not to do)
• Always be looking to expand your skillsets (especially beyond
the obvious)

The Interview –
Organizational Speed Dating
At some point, you’ll be invited to ask questions. Here are some
suggestions:
• How many teams do you have using agile practices right now?
• How many people have been to training? What kind of
training?
• Tell me about your Product Owners…
• How do employees here feel about agile practices?
• Why did you decide to use agile practices in the first place?
What were your goals?

Finding the Right Match
• Be clear about what you are looking for
• Decide how much of a project you are willing to take on
• Choose an organization that is a good energy match for you
• Be open-minded about who is agile
• Don’t be afraid to say “no thanks”
– Remember: the top credibility booster for any agile coach is a list of
client success stories!

Searching for Ms/ Mr Right – Hiring the
Right Candidate for Your Position
• Get clear on what you are looking for from your ScrumMaster,
Product Owner, agile coach, etc
• Be honest about your current challenges
• Ask for specific examples
• Look for people who exhibit intrisic motivation
– “What is something you did, just to see if it was possible?”
• Avoid the “golden unicorn” problem
– Hire the employee you need, not the one you wish you were ready for

Agile in Name Only
Warning signs that your candidate/ potential employer may be
using “agile” as just another buzzword:
• “A ScrumMaster’s job is to run meetings and push the team to
perform”
• “In my last job I served as a combined ScrumMaster/ Product
Owner”
• “As a Product Owner, it is my job to make sure all the
stakeholders agree on priority”
• “We’re doing our own ‘hybrid agile’. You will need to learn
our system to be successful here”
• “Wanted: ScrumMaster/ Project Manager”

Finding That Perfect Match
• Both job candidates and employers must:
– Know their own strengths and weaknesses
– Understand that we can influence and guide others but no one can
“make” another person change
– Choose attitude over skill every time

Professional Agile Coaching®
• An overview of common agile practices and when each is
appropriate to use
• Assessing your experience level as a coach
• Choosing the right client
• Making an initial assessment of a client’s agile readiness
• Developing an agile toolkit
• Creating working agreements
• Tying agile practices to business value
• Tailoring your message – how to get everyone from team
members to executives excited about agile
• Coaching across cultures
• Dealing with conflict
• Growing your skillset as an agile coach
• Building and promoting your coaching practice
Join me for this exciting new course that will further your career as an agile coach. You’ll
learn:
Contact us for dates and availability in your area!

Your Agile Coaching Questions
Given everything we have talked about today,
what additional questions about agile coaching
do you have?

• We will send directions to collect the PDU you will
earn from attending this webinar
• We will also send a links to the recorded webinar
and presentation slides once they are posted online
For more information, visit www.cprime.com
After the Webinar

Thank You!
Let’s stay in touch:
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/angela-
druckman/4/337/3b7/
• Twitter: @AngelaDruckman
• Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AngelaDruckmanCST
• Email: angela@angeladruckman.com
• 30 Days to Better Agile is available through
Amazon.com and also directly through me

The Agile Job Market: What job seekers and employers need to know

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The Agile Job Market: What job seekers and employers need to know