It could have a significant impact on your career if you embed the knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques into your everyday practice.
A certification in and of itself will always hold value for employers and potential clients but it must be augmented by an increased impact on the team, organisation and environment for it to translate into promotions and pay rises.
The certificate by itself is not necessarily going to do that for you.
For that reason, I always encourage my students to focus on how to improve as a Scrum Master and how to adopt the tools, techniques, and recommendations to have a greater impact on the team and organisation.
That’s where the real gold lies.
Training and certification are valuable tools to teach new skills and validate existing skills.
The Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master course does an incredible job of doing exactly that. It both teaches and validates at the same time.
The value of the more advanced certifications lies in the group dynamic of training.
You are exposed to individuals who have a significant amount of experience practicing as a Scrum Master and Agile coach, and you are exposed to the challenges they have as well as how to overcome those challenges.
In addition to growing your network of scrum professionals, you actively learn from these individuals as they share their war stories or from the questions they pose to your Certified Scrum Trainer.
It’s real-world insights, challenges and solutions that are immediately actionable as part of your practice as a Scrum Master.
At this stage of your career, you will be straddling the lanes of Scrum Master and Agile Coach. The Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master course will take your coaching and facilitation skills to the next level.
You will learn how to be a more effective coach to your team, outside of the team, and how to facilitate everything from workshops to Scrum events. The tools, techniques, models, and frameworks you learn will have a significant impact on your team and organisation.
As you practice these skills and techniques, you will become more valuable as an Agile Coach and Scrum Master to the organisations you serve and the individuals you work with, and ultimately that is going to have a significant impact on your career and prospects.
The Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master is a valuable credential that is internationally recognised and respected. It will carry a lot of value for potential employers and clients, and it does serve to validate your expertise as a professional Scrum Master.
It is up to you, however, to ensure that you practice and embed the knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques of the course to make the most of the career opportunities that lie before you.
The certification is the final step before you can validate your skills as a Certified Team Coach or Certified Enterprise Coach. We would recommend that you practice as a Scrum Professional for at least a year before seeking to achieve the CEC and CTC certifications from Scrum Alliance.
You will be well prepared to excel as a Scrum practitioner and Agile coach from the CSP-SM course but like any form of training, it simply prepares you for the role rather than ensures you excel in the role.
If you adopt the tools, models, and frameworks and actively practice them in your working environment you are going to see great results. If you augment that by working through the recommended reading list provided in the course, you are going to amplify those results and prepare yourself for success in your career trajectory as a scrum practitioner and agile coach.
Visit the Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master course page for insights into the course and the opportunities it may afford you.
If you like the idea of a mentored and coach-driven approach to your skills development, visit our Agile Coach Academy for more information.
To get an insight into coaching as part of your practice, visit our on-demand Introduction to Coaching course page.