by Jeroslyn JoVonn
January 17, 2025
A 33-year-old Scrum Master reveals her journey to success.
Meet Shanelle Gibson, a 33-year-old Scrum Master now earning $132,000 annually—just a decade after working 12-hour warehouse shifts for barely $15 an hour—without a college degree.
“Whether you succeed in college or not doesn’t define who you are as a person,” she told CNBC Make It as part of its Ditching the Degree series.
“You can read books and take boot camps online; there are so many ways to improve your skills. Whatever it is that you want to do, if you have the right attitude and put the work in, you’ll achieve it.”
It all began in 2015 when Gibson, then 23, had an epiphany while folding clothes in a warehouse. She realized her current job wasn’t the career path she envisioned.
Gibson watched as friends graduated from college and launched high-paying careers. At the same time, she navigated her own path after leaving Valdosta State University in Georgia to avoid piling up student loan debt.
“I just had this ‘aha moment’ where I looked around at these mountains of boxes and tired people working alongside me and thought, ’I shouldn’t be here; I feel like I’m destined for more than this minimum wage job. I’m not happy in,” Gibson recalled. “That propelled me to quit and just start applying everywhere.”
Determined to make a change, Gibson uploaded her resume to Craigslist, where a hiring manager at ParkingSoft, a parking management software startup, spotted her application and invited her to interview for a phone dispatcher role at its Atlanta office. After securing the job, Gibson quickly impressed her team and was promoted within weeks to customer support analyst due to her initiative in solving customer issues rather than simply passing calls to the service team.
The experience, along with her previous work in retail, all aided in Gibson’s transition into Scrum Master work.
“That job started my tech career,” she said. “All of the technical skills I learned doing that job – from SQL (a programming language) to JIRA (project tracking software) made me a more confident, competitive candidate for higher-paying tech jobs, even without a degree.”
After holding several customer service roles, Gibson grew increasingly frustrated with the monotony of the work. A friend suggested she explore becoming a Scrum Master. After further review, Gibson decided to take a $400 two-day course at Scrum Alliance.
According to Coursera, a Scrum Master is “to use Agile project management to champion a project, teams, and team members. Since Scrum Masters can work in many settings, your tasks and responsibilities may vary. Depending on where you work, you may find yourself taking on the role of a facilitator, coach, or project manager.”
Not long after earning her certification, Gibson secured her first Scrum Master position at UnitedHealthcare. In 2022, she advanced her career by joining her current company as a lead Scrum Master, earning an annual salary of well over $100,000.
“I knew that I was capable and hardworking, but society tells us that you need a college degree to land a high-paying job,” she said. “Hitting that milestone helped me realize that there’s no special formula to earning six figures; it’s up to you to decide how hard you’re willing to work toward that goal and not let something like a degree requirement limit you.”
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