Megan taught English at a public high school and now works as a scrum master at a major textbook publishing company. She shares why she transitioned as well as what a scrum master and delivery lead actually does.
Listen to the episode in the podcast player below, or find it on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
Mentioned in the episode:
- Use code “TCC” to get 50% off of everything at Aspireship
- Our career path quiz at www.teachercareercoach.com/quiz
- Explore the course that has helped thousands of teachers successfully transition out of the classroom and into new careers: The Teacher Career Coach Course (If you are a Teacher Career Coach Course member, you can also sign up for our one-on-one Career Clarity calls.)
Elizabeth: Welcome, Megan!
Megan: thank you. Thank you. I’m excited to be here and talk about my experience.
Elizabeth: Well, we’re super happy to have you, and we would love to learn a little bit about your background, what got you into education in the first place.
Megan: My background: I grew up with two parents who were teachers. My mom taught middle school and then eventually switched to elementary school. And then my dad taught middle school. just seeing how they made differences in students lives. Like when we would be out around the town, cause I grew up in a pretty small town. Students would recognize them all the time and just come up, and you could tell that they really made a difference in these students lives.
So I originally went to undergrad for graphic communications. Totally not teaching. My mom actually told me not to be a teacher 15 years ago. She was talking about how much teaching had changed and it just wasn’t the same anymore because of all the just politics and rules and everything.
So I went into a totally different major, worked in that for a couple years and then eventually decided like, no, I do want to be a teacher. And I went back to get my master’s in secondary education and taught English in high school .For about five years.
Elizabeth: Very cool. And was that, um, like a public or a private or a charter setting?
Megan: Public school. So I was always with public. Um, I was actually at the same school the whole entire time. I loved the school. I love the principal.I’ve loved my like co co workers, and it was great experience there.
Elizabeth: And that kind of leads us into the next question. How did you know after that five years that you were ready for a change?
Megan: I think it kind of started creeping up. Like, I feel like a lot of people are similar around COVID. Things changed a lot. that was my,I think third year teaching was when COVID happened. And you know, of course like school shut down everything. Um, we went totally e learning for the rest of the year in 2020.
And then we came back on a hybrid schedule and the hybrid schedule it was just kind of chaotic. Like half the students would be in class, half the students would be on the computer at home. So you’d be teaching like on the, like kids on the computer, but also teaching the kids in the class at the same time.
And it was just a lot to manage. Um, obviously we kind of figured it out as best we could, but from then on out, like, I feel like the expectations for teachers just became a little crazier and crazier and unrealistic. when you look at your life and how much more prep time you’re having to spend because you do have kids on the computer and in class, the benefits didn’t necessarily outweigh I guess, bad parts of it anymore, and the amount of effort we were having to put in. It was not in line with what we were being paid, which I know is a huge topic for teachers, but like the salary, and then the amount of hours I was working were just not the same, and I could tell I was exhausted every day.
Like my personality changed. I wasn’t like excited to do things because I was just tired all the time. Or I always had papers to grade. I always had something I needed to do for class. That was just always stressing me out. Cause of course, even though the students can’t help, this is how things are now, like you still want to do the best for them, so everything’s still really stressful to make sure you’re doing as much as you can to be like an effective and good teacher to the students.
Elizabeth: That’s a, that’s a lot to manage.
Megan: Yeah.
Elizabeth: And speaking of managers, it’s exciting because now you are a scrum master and a delivery lead at a prominent publishing company. I’m excited to dig into that and learn about. what that means. as you were wrapping up teaching and looking for new roles, how did you decide that this was going to be a good fit?
Megan: Yeah, I think that’s a question, I had a lot of conversations with co workers and friends of like, my degree, first off, you know, I do have a degree in graphics, but I mean, it’s kind of old at this point. And then I have my teaching degree, like what else can you do with a teaching degree? and a lot of feedback that I got and a lot of conversations that I had with others were trying to think of like, what skills do you have to have to be a teacher? And then what can that fit in, like in the outside world with other professions?
I actually got really lucky because one of my coworkers, a fellow teacher that taught English with me, she left like the year before.
And she really, she started freelancing and worked for a variety of companies like while she was teaching and eventually got a full time job with one of the companies. you know, we missed her as a teacher, didn’t have her in our hallway anymore. she messaged me one day and was basically like, we have this job, you’d be really good at it., and they love to hire ex teachers because the skills that teachers have, the organization, the management, just like priorities really fit into specifically like what she was doing a scrum master and delivery lead.
So she was like, you should apply. I’m going to give them, you know, a recommendation, your name. So I applied to see what would happen. And I wasn’t necessarily like, yes, I’m definitely leaving teaching, but I just wanted to see like what would happen. It couldn’t hurt, and I got the job.
Elizabeth: So I think just looking at what skills teachers have, because we have a lot of them that we learn from teaching, like in the classroom. And I feel like that can apply to so many jobs. That’s especially great to hear that the company that you work for now really values teachers and they like, they see that, they know that, and they’re actively looking for people who have teaching experience.
Would you tell us a little bit about the interview process and different questions that they asked that were, you know, of course, different from the teaching profession?
Megan: Yeah, I, of course updated my resume. I know one problem that is harder is like when your last experience on your resume is just teacher.
So like my friend’s resume, she had like all these freelance jobs that she had done in companies. She was still teaching at the same time, like, I feel like that really helped her to be able to get the job with this company. Cause otherwise, like if I would have just applied. With just teacher, as my last job, I don’t know if I would have necessarily been competitive with some of the other applicants.
But specifically this company, like, they do really understand how much teachers know, and what our skills are.
So that was kind of lucky. But after I submitted the resume on their job website, I put in her as my recommendation. I think they probably asked her some questions. I don’t actually really remember that, but I got one interview with she’s now like the head of the department that I work in.
so I interviewed with her and honestly, it was a really, it was pretty brief interview. I think it lasted like 25 or 30 minutes and she kind of just asked about my background experience, and then she would give me scenarios.
I can’t remember what they were now, but like, how would you handle this situation or what would you do if, someone took accountability for something you did or, you know, just kind of some of those typical job questions. But she really only asked me maybe three of those. And other than that, she really, like, just told me more about the company and we just kind of had a conversation.
I think they just really try to see, like, can you fit in with our company, and, are you, able to answer questions on the spot, and that kind of stuff. so, had the meeting with her, and then, a few days later, I got a call from one of the HR people and she offered me the job.
So I was really shocked that it only took that one interview. I mean, I think again, it was cause my friend like that really put me in a good spot. I don’t know what it would be like if I didn’t have her. There might’ve been more interviews?I know I’ve been on the other side now that I work for the company, I have interviewed people now, but it’s not for the same role I do. It’s for a different role. And they did have to go through at least three interviews . It was a panel interviews. There would be like three or four people interviewing them at the same time. So I knew like that was way different than my experience, but again, it’s a different role.
Elizabeth: And that’s just a great point too, as well. every company’s different interviews look different depending on where you are, who you’re interviewing with.
So now I’m excited because we’ve had quite a few teachers ask this. They’ve been asking about a podcast on a Scrum Master. So can you tell us What does a scrum master do?
Megan: Yeah, I would say it’s kind of a funny job to describe. Um, because, you know, anytime someone asked me what I do, I’m like, you’ve probably never heard of it, but I’m a scrum master. and surprisingly, some people do know what it is. So. I first should say I was not a certified scrum master when I started.
They hired me knowing that. All the other scrum masters I work with were hired without having a scrum master certification. So once you work there for like a couple months and they just pay for you to get certified, which is really nice. I think it took me a couple months, but you can kind of do it at your own pace.
Like you could do it faster than that if you wanted to, or you could take longer, but you just kind of study, you’d watch some videos, study some material, and then you take a test to, to pass.
What you learn about being a scrum master is it’s really like a type of management of a team. So you are kind of trying to help your team function in the most efficient way and like the best way with each other.
every company kind of I’ve found just from talking to others, they do it a little bit differently,
to make it work for whatever their own, output is. Whether it be publishing or, like, data or whatever.
So, our Scrum Ceremonies, we have a Sprint Planning. And our Sprints are set up within like two week increments. We have a sprint refinement.
We have a sprint retro and a sprint review.
we’re sprint planning. We plan out the next two weeks. What is everyone going to do? So I’m in charge of running all of those meetings, and we really, we call everyone else on the team developers and that’s just what they’re called in scrum.
So like, I’m also a developer. My developer role is a delivery lead. And then we have LXDs who do a lot of the design work. so we kind of all work together during sprint planning, during sprint refinement, and during sprint review to like plan out the weeks and then refine how we’re doing and then review the sprint when it’s done.
But I’m really in charge of like making sure everyone’s staying on track. It’s all in progress. every job someone is doing that sprint gets a story. So I update all of those. I make sure that they have all the information they need. And then all of our stakeholders getting updated.
it’s kind of like a, kind of like a way of management, but like, I’m not, anyone’s manager. I’m just more of like management of the team.
Elizabeth: So is it kind of like, helping these team members stay on track for project deadlines and you’re kind of checking in with everyone. You are kind of a manager in this role. Are people on the team from different departments? Like, do you have like software engineers, designers, and just all sorts of people on the team?
Megan: I’m part of a department that’s all delivery leads and scrum masters. my scrum team has also designers on it and they’re part of their own department. And then we do also have like some software development that’s another like role that I play is management, between the teams. Cause when we do have. Something where we need the software development team to do something for us. we work with a lot of different departments and roles.
Elizabeth: you’re getting to know, like, all of these other careers and, and what they do.
And so, working for a publishing company, it sounds like, You know, you have a lot of deadlinesthings get busy when they’re approaching.
So tell us a little bit about, just what happens when you’re approaching a deadline. what’s the environment like and how do you work to make sure that everything gets done on time?
Megan: we really work within quarters. So like quarter three just started. We had a big quarter three planning and our goal at the beginning of each quarter is to really map out like, okay, this is what we have to do. How can it fit in the quarter so that we get everything done.
So we really spend a lot of time at the beginning really mapping everything out now things change a lot. So, you know, whatever we planned for might not go exactly as what we would have hoped. Um, but that’s part of being an agile. Like, we work, we’re an agile company also. So that’s just part of being agile and making sure that we can adjust as needed. Um, we can bring in more people if we need, we can get a freelancer if we need to.
as it gets closer, like we always are re evaluating, like, okay, are we where we need to be, because we really have these big goals end of the quarter that such and such needs to be online or done by the end of the quarter.
So we check in weekly like, okay, where’s this at? Do we need any support on that? as it gets closer to the quarter ending, then we really are able to see like, okay, What is still at risk if there are things that are still at risk Then we just have to bring it up with stakeholders make sure everyone’s aware like this might be a week late It might be two weeks late These are the reasons why but they’ve also probably gotten a heads up about that throughout the quarter because we do review it so often
end of the quarter it gets a little crazy
end of the quarter is when the delivery leads, like myself, have to really actually push the content forward onto our platform.
But it’s just all about, I mean, like time management and making sure that, again, that we have it mapped out.
Elizabeth: That makes sense. I was about to kind of ask you about different challenges, which you, you kind of went over. And it sounds like as well,your company’s great at like communicating, going over expectations. So just people are aware they know when things are coming out, and if things are going to be delayed.
So in all of this management, I mean, there’s so many parallels to teaching. can you talk a little bit about the difference? You know, you manage a room full of high school students and now adults, so are there any similarities or differences with that?
Megan: I think a lot of it, like, you mentioned a second ago, like communication is key and just making sure if you say something in a meeting. sometimes people are multitasking or they might be a more visual learner. So you just learn like things that are really important. We always try to follow up with like in a chat or in an email to make sure that everyone’s on the same page. So that’s definitely like similar. I think to teaching is you look at what are people’s learning styles? Like you learn there’s people I’ve worked with now for a couple years, and I learned like, okay, their strength is not organization.
So if I’m sending them, I need them to do X, Y, Z, I might send it to them in a different way than I would someone else, because I might have to do some of the like organization for them beforehand for them to be more successful.
So you might have to explain the same thing, but explain it in, like, five different ways, which I feel like I had to do all the time with teaching. And that, like, happened to me this morning where, like, one person got what I was saying, but then another person was still kind of confused. So then I explained it in a completely different way, and I think they finally got it, you know, so it’s like, you have to just really pay attention to people and what they’re, how they learn things, how they understand things, how they process things.
But yeah, it’s like the organization and the lists and all that kind of stuff that I have being a scrum master or very similar also to teaching, like just having everything documented somewhere and written down. having like multiple ways for people to find things, whether it’s like a link to something or they have an attachment also, like just making sure they have all the resources they need, because I know with teaching, it’s like, you can give a student something one day, but then they don’t know where to find it again, or they don’t know how to get back to it.
I, especially with high school, especially cause we did deal with so many, like, they had their Chromebooks, and we did a lot of stuff online, but then they would want a paper copy. they would also email me and be like, can I have an electronic copy of this? You know, so, there’s just a lot of, a lot of similarities for sure.
Elizabeth: And that’s such a good point too, about being thoughtful with adult learners and, and what type, of way that they learn, you know, they might need something in this fashion or this form different from another team member. And at your company, are there any opportunities for growth?
If you ever decided to move up or onwards, what does that look like?
Megan: Yes, so, well, my role that I’m in now, there are technically four levels. Since I’ve worked there for two years now, and I, like, you start off at, like, level one. I’m now a level two, and every year we do, like, an annual review. You have co workers that you can send, a review sheet to, and they can kind of review you as well.
Um, so you do, like, a whole annual review with your manager, and then they can either approve you or suggest that you shouldn’t need to get a promotion. so you definitely have a lot of opportunity to like move up. So my next step would be move up to a level three, which normally takes a few years, like four or five years at least to get to the level three.
And then next would be like the principal delivery lead, which would be the top tier of delivery lead. After that, then there are opportunities to go to like a management role. there’s like multiple levels of manager roles above me also. So there’s a lot of, yeah, there’s a lot of opportunity for growth.
And then I’ve also found like, obviously right now, like we’ve said, like I’m a delivery lead, but we were really busy this quarter. And so there were some roles I took on that was actually like a designer role So I feel like not only like upward trajectory growth, but you can also kind of grow as far as learning different types of things.
Like I can learn about designer stuff that if I wanted to switch to a designer role one day, then like, maybe I could, there’s a lot of ways you can definitely like learn and grow and build.
Elizabeth: if, a teacher right now is looking to transition into this role, where would you tell them to start or to look if they’re ready to move into this role?
Megan: I would say, so I mean, I get emails all the time from LinkedIn that are scrum master roles, like companies hiring. I didn’t realize, of course, until I was a scrum master, like how big of a of a job it is. Like, so many companies use it that you wouldn’t think of. I mean, Like drug rep companies, data analytic companies, like there’s just all kinds of companies that use Scrum Master as a position.
and delivery leads, a lot of times they go hand in hand, not always, but I would say like search for that on LinkedIn. I’ve seen so many job openings. I have seen a lot of them that like, want you to have experience first. But some of the experience might not be necessarily like scrum master related.
It could be like, if you build your resume correctly, being a former teacher. For all the skills you have and align it to like, what skills a scrum master needs, and I think that’s still a competitive shot. I think really LinkedIn is probably the best option and just searching specifically for scrum master roles.
And then just, if you can find any like freelance jobs like, you’re probably not gonna find a freelance scrum master role, but like a freelance like delivery role or management, manage-y kind of thing. that might be a good place if you want to start freelancing to get that kind of stuff on your resume.
And I don’t think the scrum master certification is not that expensive. I think it’s like $150 So if you wanted to get your certification. I think it’s scrum.org is the website and you can get it from there.
Elizabeth: So tell us a little bit about how your work life balance has changed. If it has at all, um, between teaching and your new role.
Megan: Yeah. I mean, it’s changed a ton. mean, one big difference is now I’m like exclusively from home. like my company is based out of really big cities and I do not live close to one of them. When I started the company, it was working from home, and it’ll always be working from home.
they’re not planning on making anyone go back into the office. that aspect of it is huge. I used to drive about two hours round trip to and from school. So just like the drive alone saved me a ton of time.
when I shut my computer at the end of the day, I’m done. I don’t have papers to grade.
I don’t have like I don’t have like parent emails to answer, you know, I don’t have like all these little things that are in the back of my mind that I need to do. when we get close to a deadline, there are days where I work extra hours, but then you’re able to take those extra hours and say like, hey, I worked You know, this many extra hours this week, I’m gonna take this, this day off this next week when we’re a little bit slower.
that was not possible with teaching, which has been great to kind of like flex time. I mean, I took yesterday off because we have half day Fridays in the summer, and we’ve been really busy with our deadline for quarter two, and I’ve not gotten to take my half day every Friday. So I took yesterday off just since I kind of traded that for some of the half day Fridays that I couldn’t take.
So it’s really nice just having the flexibility. If I have a doctor’s appointment, I don’t have to take off a whole half day. I just go to the doctor and then come back and work. my mental state is a thousand times better.
I mean, you know, you grow so close to the kids. There are things you can’t control when you’re teaching. So that alone, like, I think mentally weighs on you when you have kids or students you’re worried about, or you have parents emailing you about stuff that like, you can’t help, say they’re, you know, upset about something you’re teaching, but it’s like, the district tells you to teach this, so like, that’s just what it is.
there’s just a lot of like, things that weigh on you mentally when you’re teaching that I do not have any more. So I’ve noticed a big difference in that of just feeling like way more free and less stress.
there obviously like are days that I’m stressed out at work. I think that comes with any job, but the amount of stress, like between this job and teaching is crazy different.
Elizabeth: We love to kind of just end with this last question What did you learn about yourself during this process?
Megan: I think Versatility is one of the biggest things of like the skills that we do have as a teacher, learning how to apply them to other jobs. And likeyou learn a lot about people and how to deal with people when you teach and how to help people in different ways.
I mean, that’s a huge part of teaching is just like Learning how to adjust your style, maybe to all the 30 different kids in your room. so then when you go into another job and work with people, it really helps you look at things from like different points of view and different perspectives. And you don’t really realize that that part of teaching like translates to the real world I don’t think until you do start working at another job. so that was really great, just learning all the different ways to help people. Whether it’s because of their learning style, or because I need to just explain things in different ways, maybe someone’s just having a really bad day,
you know, you see that with students all the time. It’s like sometimes they just have a bad day and they just need an outlet. and that’s something like with work a lot of times someone might just need a vent and that’s okay.
Elizabeth: Well, Megan, thank you so much. we’ve learned so much today about your position and your journey. And, um, I’m excited for everyone to hear about what it’s like to be a scrum master and a delivery lead. So thank you so much for your time, Megan.
Megan: yeah. Thank you. It was great to talk to you.
