Live Open Hour with iZenBridge: Episode 46

At our open-hour session, you are invited to post your queries and get them answered by some of the top experts from the industry. Let it be Agile management, Agile Coaching, Estimation, related to certifications, follow-up queries, or any other aspect of project management, you are invited to speak your mind. The open hour invites are shared in advance mostly it is conducted on the 2nd and 4th Friday at 7 PM IST (+5.5 GMT).

Here are the top questions discussed in our Live Open Hour Episode#46 session, which was streamed live on 23rd December 2022, many queries asked by participants regarding the right certification/training for professional growth were discussed by our expert Saket Bansal.

Question: How does a career transition from technology to management?

Question: I am not able to clear any interviews. Can you guide me as a mentor?

Question: What is the scope of SAFe certification in future?

Question: For Scrum Master, which one is a better career path? Product ownership or Project Management?

Question: What are the criteria pointers to becoming a trainer?

Here is the summarized answer given by Saket Bansal for questions asked by participants-

Question: How does a career transition from technology to management?

Saket: People who are either getting into career transition or want to move to the next level of job preparation get assistance with certification.
Now, as you want to establish yourself as a leader who can facilitate and lead the project team in doing project execution, you need to invest in learning these skills. You should learn things related to your experience because you need more than just getting a certification to solve your problem. You will be facing challenges in the job market.
Doing PMP certification is a good idea if you are working in a mixed mode segment which is a mixture of agility and a predictive way of working. If you see some Agile and Scrum ways of working in your organization or target organization, then doing a Certified Scrum Master(CSM) is also a good idea. So, if you see there is some value in doing a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), then go for it first, and after that, you can plan for PMP certification.

Question: I am not able to clear any interviews. Can you guide me as a mentor?

Saket: We do a scrum master interview series which is free of cost service. However, we record that session; you can keep your video off if you want to. We use the recording for sharing our discussions.
We also have mentors who can help you on a one-on-one level. Currently, I am not doing one-on-one mentoring, but I do the Open YouTube sessions mentoring, which you can join if that helps you somehow.
Also, we have a program called Industry Enabled Scrum Master (IESM) that helps significantly in getting interview tips to prepare yourself for the job market.

Question: What is the scope of SAFe certification in future?

Saket: SAFe is a particular way of working, and it is useful when that way of working is applied in your organization. It is different from a core project management skill you build as part of PMP. It is a specific way of working, which is an advantage and sometimes may become a disadvantage if you seek generic knowledge.
So, are people going to use a Scaled Agile way of working and do we see the adaption of SAFe?
I do see the organizations using SAFe. If you see your organization is moving towards SAFe and your experiences help you get into a SAFe way of working, then SAFe certification is a good choice.

Question: For Scrum Master, which one is a better career path? Product ownership or Project Management?

Saket: Generally traditional role of a project manager is a mixture of scrum master and product owner because the project manager is expected to do the stakeholder management and sell the business idea many times, even doing business analysis for the product.

So, a person can move to the facilitation role and product ownership role if the person has project management experience.

Also, it depends upon the interest and area of experience because more than just doing certification will be needed, especially when you go to a senior level. So it would be best if you related whatever you do with your experience.

If you have related experience and are interested in a business analysis or a product management space, then going to the Product Owner role is a good idea.

If Your interest is more in facilitating and managing delivery work, then you stick to a project management role.

Question: What are the criteria pointers to becoming a trainer?

Saket: It depends on if you want to become a certified trainer or non- certification trainer. If you want to become a certified trainer, then every certification has its path and curriculum. For example, if you become a PMI certification trainer, then the PMI has a path which is called the ATP training path you need to take forward.
In general, if you know the subject and you can communicate the subject, you are a trainer.

We hope you could have related to some of these questions, and they might have helped you in some way.

To get more assistance, you can connect with the iZenBridge Team.
📧Email us at (sales@izenbridge.com)
📞WhatsApp Us: +91-9958287711

For more such insights and a lot of interaction with the industry experts, stay tuned for our next “Live Open Hour” which is conducted Every second and fourth Friday at 7 PM IST on