When I reflect on my journey in the Agile and Scrum landscape, one question often arises: why should I encourage individuals to pursue a certification path in their careers? The answer is quite simple and resonates with the same rationale that drives people to attend university. Certifications, much like degrees, serve as a foot in the door. They provide a way to validate your knowledge, but let’s be clear—certifications themselves hold no intrinsic value.
The Reality of Certifications
Think back to your own experiences. How often have you had to pull out your university degree a decade after graduation? For me, it was only when I applied for my H-1B visa to work in the US that I needed to showcase my degree. Even then, it wasn’t enough on its own; I had to supplement it with two years of professional experience to meet the requirements. This illustrates a crucial point: while certifications can help validate your knowledge, they do not equate to actual skills or the ability to apply what you’ve learned.
- Knowledge vs. Skills: It’s essential to differentiate between amassing knowledge and developing skills. For instance, if you’re part of a Scrum team, it’s a given that you should have read the Scrum Guide. But how can an employer verify that you’ve done so?
The Litmus Test for Employers
As an employer, I would want a straightforward way to assess whether candidates have the foundational knowledge necessary for the role. Instead of interviewing thousands of applicants and asking if they’ve read the Scrum Guide, I could simply require the Professional Scrum Master I (PSM1) certification. Passing this assessment is a strong indicator that you’ve engaged with the Scrum Guide and understand its principles.
This certification acts as a litmus test, helping employers narrow down candidates who are genuinely prepared to contribute to a Scrum team.
The Importance of Validated Learning
Beyond the external validation that certifications provide, there’s an internal aspect that’s equally important: validated learning. If you complete a course without any assessment, how can you be sure you’ve grasped the material? You might think you understood everything, but our memories can be deceptive.
This is where Scrum.org excels. They offer a unique approach to validated learning. After completing a course, you receive a token to take the assessment, with the opportunity for a second attempt if needed. This structure not only encourages you to engage with the material but also provides feedback on your performance across various categories.
- Feedback and Growth: If you pass but score low in a specific area, you’re given resources to study further. This targeted learning path is invaluable for your professional development.
Continuous Learning and Career Advancement
Once you’ve secured that initial foot in the door, the real challenge begins: demonstrating your understanding during interviews. There’s a wealth of advice on LinkedIn about how to validate a candidate’s knowledge, often involving tricky questions. However, the best way to prepare is simply to know your stuff.
To truly understand the concepts, you must invest time in studying, whether through reading books, watching videos, or engaging with blog posts. Training courses can serve as a great starting point, but they should be viewed as just that—a starting point.
What’s Next?
The output from Scrum.org classes is impressive, often including a list of at least ten recommended books and additional resources. Each trainer typically adds their own insights and materials, enriching the learning experience. By taking the time to explore these resources, you can significantly enhance your career trajectory and accelerate your professional growth.
In conclusion, pursuing a certification path is not merely about adding a line to your CV; it’s about committing to a journey of continuous learning and improvement. If you’re serious about advancing your career in Agile, Scrum, or DevOps, I encourage you to invest in your education and embrace the opportunities that certifications provide.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you found it helpful, please like, follow, and subscribe. I’m always open to discussions, so feel free to book a coffee chat with me through Naked Agility if you’d like to delve deeper into Agile, Scrum, or DevOps topics.
So the question was, why would I encourage people to follow a certification path in their career journey? I would say for the same reason that people go to university. The reason people do any course is it gets your foot in the door. Certifications themselves have no value. How many of you have ever had to pull out your university degree, right, ten years after you’ve graduated from university? You don’t. Maybe your first couple of jobs you had to. I had to pull out my university degree when I applied for my H-1B to go work in the US. They actually didn’t like it. I had to contribute two years of my professional experience to make up the year that the US degrees have more than my degree that I took. But it all worked out. That’s why you have those things, right? Somebody wants to validate your knowledge. It doesn’t mean you have skills. Skills and application of learning is different from just amassing knowledge. But kind of at a minimum, for certain roles, you should have knowledge, right? At the very least, if you’re going to be working on a scrum team, you should probably have read the Scrum Guide.
If I was an employer, how do I validate that you’ve read the Scrum Guide? Well, I could sit and interview the thousand people that apply and ask them, “Have you read the Scrum Guide?” Or I could just put in the job spec PSM1. If you can pass the PSM1, you’ve read the Scrum Guide. It would be very difficult to pass the PSM1 if you’ve not read the Scrum Guide. So there’s a minimum bar, there’s a litmus test, there’s a quick check that an employer can do to whittle down the thousand candidates to the 200 candidates that have actually read the Scrum Guide because we want somebody who can work on a scrum team.
Taking that assessment, that’s why it’s valuable from a professional career perspective. External professional career perspective, like somebody looking at you, but internal professional career perspective, it’s about validated learning. If I take a course and there’s no assessment at the end, how do I know I understood what was the intent for me to understand from the course? Well, I don’t. I just have to say, “Well, I didn’t pay attention for half of it and I forgot the other 60,” and now I’ve done the course, so I should be able to go do the job. But that’s not really how it works, right? Our memories don’t work that way. Our understanding doesn’t work that way.
That’s why I really like the way that Scrum.org do the validated learning. You effectively get two attempts to take the assessment. At the end of the class, everybody gets a token to take the assessment, and if they take it within 14 days, you get a free second one if you fail. If you pass, well, you passed, right? But in both cases, you get your results broken down by category with a percentage, and you’re able to look at that and say, “Well, I didn’t know I had a low score. I passed, but I had a low score in this area, so perhaps I should study this material.”
The thing you get with the scores on it actually has a link to a bunch of material to study in that topic that Scrum.org have created. There’s a Scrum Master learning path, there’s a Product Owner learning path, there’s various learning paths. That additional learning, even if I got a high score in it, I want to dive deeply into that topic because I liked it. How do you know where to start or where to look? Here’s a place to start.
That validated learning for you and your career path, because the thing, once you get beyond getting in the door, right, the foot in the door, that gets you to the actual interview, is you still have to demonstrate in the interview that you actually understand stuff. There are so many posts on LinkedIn talking about how to validate that the person at the interview actually understands the thing that you’re talking about, and all these trick questions. You just need to know your stuff.
In order to know your stuff, you have to have done the studying, absorbed the information, and understood it. You don’t get that from not looking at anything, not reading the books, not watching the videos, not reading the blog posts, right? You have to invest some time and effort in figuring out what this thing is. Training courses are a great way to level set.
What’s next? I mean, the output of Scrum.org classes, I think all of them have at least ten books. “Here you go, here’s a bunch of books to read. Here’s a bunch of additional content to read.” Each trainer adds more content into that story as you go. If you take the time to check it out, learn how to do different things, you can improve your career trajectory so that you get further quicker, right? That’s really what careers are about.
Thanks for watching the video. If you enjoyed it, please like, follow, and subscribe. I always reply to comments, and if you want to have a chat about this or anything else Agile, Scrum, or DevOps, then please book a coffee with me through Naked Agility.
