MEET JONATHAN GHANDFOROUSH: FROM BUILDING HOUSES TO BUILDING SOFTWARE

Before Jonathan Ghandforoush became a Backend Developer, he worked in his family’s construction business in Brooklyn. One day, after sustaining a workplace injury, Ghandforoush decided he had enough. 

“I wasn’t necessarily happy in construction, and I was even more frustrated because I had just gotten hurt,” Jonathan recounts.

Shortly thereafter, Jonathan took an interest in Software Development, and he figured he’d give it a shot. He took a few free classes before enrolling in a software engineering boot camp at Flatiron School in New York.

“Initially, I thought it was fun, but I didn’t know if it was exactly for me,” says Jonathan.

Then the pandemic hit, and the state of New York shut down, putting a halt to work across industries. It was at this point that Jonathan decided to go all-in on Software Development. 

After completing the Flatiron School program, Jonathan spent a year working for IT giants, Infosys, managing linux servers on contract with Citizens Bank. He was then hired to work at a startup, building a full service CRM for tradespeople— this is where Jonathan flourished and came into his own as a developer. 

“I was provided with great guidance and mentorship along the way, particularly from my Lead Developer at the time, and that heavily contributed to my growth as a developer,” Jonathan explains. 

Three years post-Flatiron, Jonathan is now Haneke Design’s Lead Backend Developer. Backend developers like Ghandforoush tend to the parts of a website or application that you can’t see— the code that tells servers what to serve to the frontend.

When asked what a typical day looks like for Jonathan, he noted there is no typical day. Haneke Design creates a variety of solutions for a wide range of industries, and Jonathan has his hands in a little bit of everything— just the way he likes it.

In his seven months at Haneke Design, Jonathan has worked with a beauty brand, a steel company, and a mentorship program, and he looks forward to the future work to come.

“There are certain things that I look at in the pipeline, and I think, ‘Wow, this is huge’. That excitement for the future has me eager to continue to learn and refine my skills.”

Jonathan’s story speaks as a testament to his resilience, adaptability, and an unwavering passion for continuous learning. In celebrating Jonathan Ghandforoush, we celebrate a pivotal force behind Haneke’s prowess in crafting cutting-edge solutions that transcend conventional boundaries. His story exemplifies the transformative power of seizing opportunities, even in the face of unexpected turns.