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The Agile coaching market has been growing rapidly because of the mainstream adoption of Agile. In the 2017 “Most Promising Jobs” overview by LinkedIn, Scrum master (a type of Agile coach: read below) was ranked in 10th place, with 104% year over year job opening growth and a base salary of around $100,000.
What is Agile?
According to The Agile Coach “Agile is a mindset, described by the 4 values, defined by 12 principles and manifested through hundreds of practices…Business agility depends upon a strong foundation in applying agile principles, processes, and frameworks along with embracing Lean and Agile thinking. This pillar includes the following competencies: Agile practices, Agile Planning, Facilitation and Collaboration, and Agile/Lean Mindset.” Watch this video on Agile Coach to learn more!
As businesses increasingly turn to Agile product development to launch new products and features, it is becoming more likely that the teams responsible for delivery will apply Agile methodology. In other words, agile is more like helping large companies (with organizational inefficiencies like bureaucracy, functional silos, etc) think, act and deliver like startups. Startups can’t afford to not deliver value to their end-users on a weekly basis and they can’t afford to not experiment and learn rapidly.
That’s what agile teams are doing:
- Delivering value (product increment) to users on a regular basis (every few weeks)
- Experiment and learn rapidly by testing their hypothesis
- Reflecting among the team on how they can get better at delivering quality work
- Aligning with leadership to add the most value to the end-user and customers
What Is an Agile Coach?
The average salary of an Agile coach, who works on a multi-team level, can range between $122,000 and $138,000 per year! In 2019, Indeed.com listed Agile Coach as one of the top 25 best jobs in the US for 2019. As we know not all coaches are the same, but an Agile Coach is usually a person who is responsible for coaching, mentoring, training and facilitating with teams to achieve business agility. In addition, they may do this by helping companies and teams adopt agile practices (such as scrum, kanban, XP, test-driven development, etc) and improving processes within a team or a company.
They are much more than a coach. They’re professionals who enjoy mentoring and coaching individuals and teams. They are also adept at delivering training and modeling what great agile looks like. They help to improve business teams by sharing new perspectives and insight. An Agile Coach helps pave the path for long-term agile success for the company and individuals. Agile Coaches can either be employees or work as external contractors. Agile coaches also help to cultivate a work culture that’s strong and dynamic.
A good agile coach politely but firmly challenges, engages, questions, motivates, and holds people (as well as themselves) accountable. Often great agile coaches have an interest in behavioral science, psychology of teams, high-performing teams, and emotional intelligence. They are highly conscientious and often take a servant leader’s stance in high-pressure environments.
The ultimate goal for an agile coach is to provide agile teams with the right knowledge/mindset, autonomy, and conditions for learning so team members will reach their full potential.
What is a Scrum Master?
A Scrum Master is a type of Agile Coach. It’s usually the first career step for professional agile coaches. A Scrum Master works to instill agile values on a team level by helping the team learn and master scrum framework
According to The Agile Coach, “The scrum master is the team role responsible for ensuring the team lives agile values and principles and follows the processes and practices that the team agreed they would use. The responsibilities of this role are helping teams remove impediments, establishing an environment where the team can be effective, addressing team dynamics, ensuring a good relationship between the team and product owner as well as others outside the team. Also, Scrum Masters protect the team from outside interruptions and distractions.”
What is The Agile Coach?
The Agile Coach mentors, trains, and coaches you to land a non-coding Tech job in 3-6 months. You’ll go through an immersive learning experience that helps you to develop the Agile mindset. You’ll learn to respect collaboration, improvement, and learning cycles. The Agile Coach instructors are dedicated to your success, so much so you don’t pay tuition until you have a job making at least 55K.
The Agile Coach also offers real experience as part of their training where you get to apply everything you previously learned. Students who have gone through The Agile Coach have landed jobs at companies like Mastercard, Express Scripts, Bayer, Centene, US Bank, Ameren, Bank of America, and more.
The training is completely remote through live, online classes and real-time conversation, so all you need is your laptop, internet, and passion for learning! Since a lot of jobs in this field are also increasingly going remote you’ll also learn skills on how to coach a team remotely.
How Much Does The Agile Coach Cost?
The Agile Coach offers two types of payment options. An Income Share Agreement (ISA) and upfront tuition.
For those able to pay upfront, the payment is $18K.
Alternatively, members can forego the upfront cash payment, and instead participate in an income share agreement (ISA). You pay $2k upfront and then share 12% of your income for two years and $30k being the absolute most that you would ever pay towards your ISA.
Under the ISA option, members are not required to pay anything, other than the $2,000 registration fee unless they land an Agile Coach job making 55k or more. We call this the Minimum Income Threshold, or “Floor”, and if your income ever drops under this floor your payments are paused until you are again making over 55k.
You don’t start payments until you start your new role, and The Agile Coach instructors work with you on a 1:1 basis until you get a role in 90-120 days.
Agile may seem like a daunting field to jump into but it doesn’t have to be! The Agile Coach has figured out how to make the journey less stressful and fulfilling. Are you ready to kick-start your Agile Coach Career? Get started with The Agile Coach today!
About Meratas
Meratas is the leading Income Share Agreement (ISA) software company, providing a full-service, turnkey, SaaS platform to design, originate, and manage ISAs. We help universities, bootcamps, trade schools, and membership programs increase enrollment and open accessibility to their programs. All through the power of Income Share Agreements.
We also help those looking to get an education, up-skill, or re-skill get into the career of their dreams. All at, generally, no upfront cost. We pair individuals looking for fresh new careers with the best educational programs on the Meratas platforms to reach their professional goals. If you’re looking to break into your new career, check out our student page and we’ll help you find the job of your dreams.
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