Alishah Novin

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Coder for 17+ years

Leader & Mentor for 13+ years

Manager & Director for 12+ years

Product Manager for 7+ years

Agile Transformer for 10+ years

Alishah has been a professional Software Engineer for more than 17 years, and has been coding for most of his life. He's worked with 2 Fortune 200 companies and 5 start-ups. His career has spanned multiple industries including Healthcare, FinTech and 10 years in the disruptive Software Robotics / Automation space. In 2009, one of his personal projects was ranked as one of the top 100 sites by PCMag. As a Director of Engineering, he has overseen multiple large teams of Engineers and Data Analysts. He was awarded as the 2017 Software Engineer of the Year with the Nashville Technology Council and recognized once more in 2020 as the Community Leader of the Year. With more than a decade of hiring experience, he's interviewed thousands, and hired hundreds - ranging from Software Engineers, to Product Owners, Product Managers, Data Analysts, Business Analysts, and Sales and Marketing. Currently he is a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft.

1984
Born in Canada.
1992
Learned Basic.
1994
Learned QBasic.
1996
Learned Visual Basic 4.0, HTML, built games and websites.
1998
Learned JavaScript, VBScript, CSS, &Flash.
2000
Built first website.
2002
Freshman year at the University of Toronto, studying Physics, Math and Computer Science. Learned Java.
2004
Freelanced throughout college.
2006
Built website for Ghanian prince. Graduated from the University of Toronto with a Physics degree. Landed first job with startup company.
Learned PHP & SQL.
2007
Began working at
Microsoft, in Redmond WA.
Learned C#, .NET
2009
Personal project,
Broken Picture Telephone, ranked as
Top 100 site by PCMag
2010
Joined an RPA start-up company, HPA, as
Sr. Software Engineer
2012
Promoted to Engineering Manager. Startup acquired by one of Healthcare's largest technology companies, TriZetto.
2015
Acquired again!
Underwent 2nd acquisition, joining the accelerator group within Cognizant - a Fortune 200 corporation.
2017
Received the NTC's
Software Engineer of the Year award.
2018
Promoted to Director of Engineering with 4 teams of 30+ individuals.
2019
Exercise teaching Machine Learning to kids using
Starbursts published in
Bots! Robotics Engineering.
2020
Joined Celero Commerce as the Director of Engineering. Lead agile transformation. Oversee 25+ engineering team. Named Community Leader of the Year.
2022
Joined Microsoft and
pivoted to
Product Management to broaden professional skill set and explore new challenges.
2025
Received 2nd place in org-wide hackathon competition for a simplified approach to building and integrating a RAG-based AI/LLM solution.


#projects

showcasing various in-flight projects

code / collision A game for developers: Host an event, developers code their strategies and compete.
youtube channel YouTube channel with tips and suggestions for junior coders and engineering managers.

#OpenToHelping Join the #OpenToHelping movement
Unghosted Tune in to Unghosted, a monthly live-stream focused on helping job seekers get seen, and get hired.

#resources

The following resources are for technologists, and based on 10+ years as a hiring manager at both large and small companies, interviewing and hiring hundreds.

portfolio advice Simple advice on building a strong portfolio 18k+ views
interview advice Simple advice on interviewing 11k+ views
job hunting advice Analyzing hiring manager feedback 20k+ views
resume template Advice on how to structure your resume 12k+ views
resume template A resume template for technologists 10k+ views
Resources View all resources

#techlessteaching

Techless Teaching is about taking a tech-less approach to classrooms and helping students learn about Computational Thinking approaches.

2021 Community Leader of the Year Award 2021 Community Leader of the Year Award Awarded by the Greater Nashville Technology Council
Creative Solutions - Jobs of the Future Creative Solutions - Jobs of the Future Ceremony of the Iron Ring
Creative Solutions - Jobs of the Future Creative Solutions - Jobs of the Future Thought Experiments & Iterative Problem Solving
Traveling Tech Days - Computational Thinking with Middle Schoolers Traveling Tech Days Computational Thinking with Middle Schoolers
Traveling Tech Days Traveling Tech Days Computational Thinking with Middle Schoolers
Hour of Code The Prisoner's Dilemma Programming Strategy for Google's Hour of Code
Traveling Tech Days Traveling Tech Days Problem Solving a Broken Toaster
#TechlessTeaching #TechlessTeaching Advocating for teachers to teach coding without technology
First Grade Covered in clay, wearing a pink Gucci shirt...

#OpenToHelping

In 2022, in response to the many #OpenToWork badges on LinkedIn, Alishah started the #OpenToHelping movement as a way to offer support and assistance to anyone in need.

With more than 2,000,000 views, 20,000 reactions, 1,500 messages, and 200 #OpenToHelping participants, the Helping movement has outlasted its initial viral popularity.

Whether you need some career advice, a resume review, or just a listening ear - reach out to the many out on LinkedIn featuring a yellow badge.

#OpenToHelping

Or, if you're in a place to help - join the movement and adopt the badge yourself!

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