Agile Way of Working is becoming the most common approach to product development today. It’s being adopted by businesses of all sizes, but there aren’t enough qualified people to fill the demand for agile professionals who know how to apply it in real-world situations.
Another problem with this trend is that too many companies are taking on Agile Transformation without having a solid plan in place. This leads to confusion and waste when teams try to implement agile practices like Scrum or Kanban into their workflows without understanding why they’re doing it or what benefits they should expect from using these methods.
Here are some steps you can take:
Start from your current employer:
With the current rate of growth, many organizations are either already involved in one form of Agile or Digital Transformation. So, if you interested, find out what’s already going on in your organization and share your interest with those already involved. This could be a win-win for your org if they are already hiring agile roles. You may also be able to take the trainings offered by the organization, if any.
Take an accredited training:
There is a lot of misinformation on the internet. Relying on that misinformation can be an easy way to failure. So you want to learn from the right sources. My only caveat: take the training with the intention to learn and understand the reason behind the agile concepts.
Get a mentor or a Coach:
One way to accelerate your career in Agile is to get a Mentor – someone with experience and available to share their learnings with you. This is helpful in 2 folds – learn from their experience and share your experience for feedback and advice. Please note that a Coach is different. A coach will partner with you to explore your potentials and goals, but may not necessarily advise you. So, make sure you are clear on what you need. If not sure, just ask.
Volunteer:
Classroom trainings are not enough to land and hold-down a job. You need the experience in order to build your confidence. Getting experience could easily become a Catch 22, since you need to be employed first. Volunteering could be a safe way to gain the experience you need to land your first job.
Attend meetups or Organize one:
What you will soon learn is that Agilists embrace the culture of continuous learning and contribution to the community. Most of my initial learnings were from free meetups organized by others. Take advantage of that. Another value from meetups is networking. Connect with like-minds, co-learners and other experienced practitioners.