In this episode, we cover how Ben found his vocation for the Scrum Master role, and the techniques he applied to break into the tech industry and the Scrum Master role.
Changing industries is never easy, but changing from non-tech to tech and to a completely new role, like the Scrum Master role is even harder.
For many of our guests, the Scrum Master role has been a calling, a sort of vocation that becomes obvious once you start. For our guest in this episode, Ben Mills, the vocation to be a servant leader and to help others overcome struggles was already there. And that vocation was what attracted him to the Scrum Master role.
People before anything else
When Ben started to learn more about the Scrum Master role, and eventually after taking the Scrum Master certification course, he understood that the role called for a mindset that put people before anything else. Their relationships, the collaboration, their ability to solve conflict, etc.
At this point Ben, at the time a Pastor, started to apply what he had learned in his own team. Ben had been a project manager before, so organizing and following up was not new, but the role of the Scrum Master and the process of Scrum called for something else.
Breaking into the tech industry and the Scrum Master role
For aspiring Scrum Masters, it may not always be easy to first break into the tech industry, and later into the Scrum Master role. Ben shares with us some of the tips that helped him, and still help him to grow his network, and find the right people to ask questions.
In the end, the perspective that people are the critical link in the success of teams can bring insights and prepare you for the role.
In this segment, we talk about the book Shift From Product To People, published by Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast.
Resources for aspiring Scrum Masters
Some of the books that inspired Ben Mills in his quest to understand the Scrum Master role:
- Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland
- Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Catmull et al..
But perhaps, one of the stories that influenced Ben the most, was one story of his own. When he was starting out as a project manager, and learned an important lesson about transparency. Listen in to find out what that story was, and how it can transform your work as a Scrum Master.
About Ben Mills
Ben is a scrum master, a project manager and a Pastor. That’s a very unique journey that he is sharing with us.
He’s starting his career as a scrum master and is sharing his journey with us on this BONUS episode.
You can link with Ben Mills on LinkedIn.
Marc’s passion is to help teams implementing agile frameworks like Scrum and XP and to transform our world of work. Marc loves to help teams, that are struggling with agile transitions, to overcome dysfunctional behaviour. He loves to generate new insights by approaching common problems from the other side and trying to deliberately make havoc of the process.
Stephen has been managing digital projects since 2004. Initially specialising in e-learning, he now looks after multiple projects that range from rapidly produced native apps to large-scale social networks. Based in Oxford, he is also one of the founders of the DOPM meetup.