Broaden My Skills

It takes drive, ambition, and clear action to take on the event planning industry and push the boundaries for what is possible in events. With the dedication of a mighty team, Planned has continued to work with clients and suppliers to produce unique and innovative events across North America. The talent density at Planned is at an all time high, and one of those talents is Jared Carbonneau. Jared is a Software Engineer at Planned, and since joining the team in February 2021 has made a large impact on the communication flow of the product, through enabling email notifications to be sent when a message is received on the platform, and allowing status changes to be made based on availability. He has also spent his time focusing on implementing the design system and ensuring its ease of use for all developers on the team.

Jared joined Planned at at a crucial point in our product development process and has since played a large role in improving our product and suggesting ways to engage our clients and suppliers more through the platform.

As far as his path prior to joining Planned, it may not be what you might assume.

After graduating high school, Jared was trained as a carpenter, and worked in the field for a few years. During that time he was also focusing on volunteer construction projects in the Dominican Republic. “Volunteering really brought me to cultures, languages, friends and new ways of doing things that I otherwise would have missed out on.”

After a few years in the construction industry, Jared headed across seas to China, where he learned Mandarin, taught English, and travelled to factories to inspect goods for Canadian clients. “I inspected a lot of iron castings, which are pretty cool because of the melted metal, I then transitioned to inspecting construction materials, like tiles and cabinets. China really is one big factory, and I traveled to many areas to help my clients.”

After exploring other parts of the world, Jared landed back in Montréal. While planning his next professional move, Jared took a two month coding bootcamp called DecodeMTL (now Concordia University bootcamps) and hustled to learn an entirely new industry. To Jared, “Software engineering wasn’t exactly a dream of mine, but after some friends suggested taking free online classes, I fell in love with it.”

His love for software engineering shines through in his enthusiasm to brainstorm new concepts and creatively solve technological problems at Planned.

Jared’s career as a Software Engineer today is not surprising if you look at his interests in high school. At a young age he enjoyed psychics and woodworking: subjects that encourage creativity and emphasize problem solving skills. In his view, “Software engineering allows me to build really cool things, just like when I was working in construction.”

When Jared isn’t coding, he spends most of his time with his family, exploring the great outdoors that Quebec has to offer. It’s common for Jared to take some time off from work and come back with great stories about his adventures to share with the team! “Our favorite spot this summer was Sepaq Mont-Tremblant: great short, kid-friendly hikes that reward you with waterfalls and great views. For a quick jaunt, we’ll go to St-Bruno, or biking to the Chambly Fort is always a great day out.”

Since joining Planned, Jared shares:

“It’s been really cool to see the company grow in the few months that I’ve been here. I’ve been learning a lot about what an engineer can do to make a company grow fast. Kiran Gopalakrishnan, Software Development Team Lead at Planned, and Alex Beauchemin, VP of Engineering at Planned, have taught me a lot about what’s important at this stage of the game.”

His desire to work at Planned stemmed from wanting to find a work space where he could share his ideas and level up his engineering skills: both of which he has been able to continuously accomplish at Planned.

Apart from those factors he was searching for: “opportunities to broaden my skills into the product features and UI/UX, work in a small team with flexible roles and be encouraged to have exposure in other areas. As well as be able to work with a team of engineers who get to touch everything (from database to solving user problems).” We’re glad that Jared found what he was looking for at Planned and has been a part of the team for over a year now!

Jared’s ability to think outside the box has allowed for a lot of new ideas to flow within the Planned HQ meeting rooms and be implemented in the product. We’re excited to continue to see his growth at Planned!

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