Justin Mancinelli

I’ve been trying to break understand electronics since I was a toddler. Trying to install software on an old IBM PC in 3rd grade was wonderful and teaching my 5th grade teacher how to use Windows was eye opening. My first programmable calculator (TI 86) was mind opening.

I began to get serious about programming as a hobby in high school where I taught myself PHP, SQL, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I got really serious when I decided I should try to get a minor in Computer Engineering but that was too much of a workload on top of Physics and Math and Music so it continued to be a hobby.

After graduating from college and wanting to see a bit of the world, I took a trip to Taiwan where I didn’t use any of my degrees. On the train to work, though, I became proficient in C. At home, I learned how to program with Ruby on Rails, the YouTube API, and Git.

In order to turn my hobby into a career, I joined the Masters of IT by Coursework program at the University of Queensland. Because of my drive and passion for this subject, I was able to complete it with high distinction (7 out of 7 GPA). I was able to get my first programming job at Intec in Brisbane on the combined Convergent Billing and Process Engine team. Intec was soon bought by CSG International but I continued to work on the development of Singleview.

After 4 years in Brisbane, I was ready to try another country. CSG didn’t have any immediate openings available (in countries I hadn’t already been to), but I found a job in Japan consulting for Lingo Network. I worked as a developer and Scrum Master for their client, Ericsson Japan, working on software used to optimise telecommunication radio networks. The project I was part of was so successful, our team joined a global project based in Spain. After a year, we were asked to relocate to Spain, but I wasn’t ready to leave Japan.

For my next role, I decided to be a full time Scrum Master for the IBM Marketing Experience Lab in Tokyo. By not splitting my time between Scrum Master and Developer, I could put everything into learning about facilitating and motivating teams to deliver the highest value product they could. My teams worked on innovative projects combining Agile development practices, Design Thinking, and Lean UX to create or improve internal and external tools and services for sales and marketing.

I am now a stay at home Dad in New York City looking for my next life changing career move.