At vPlan, our employees are our greatest asset. When we have happy employees, this directly reflects on our customers and product. This time, we'd like to introduce you to: Mark Boessenkool.
Mark Boessenkool is an experienced Backend Developer and Integration Specialist at vPlan. His work is most visible when you have a connection between your ERP/accounting system and vPlan. Additionally, he is busy optimizing and documenting our API, always with the goal of providing our partners with good support for developing their own integrations. But Mark does more! He contributes to the ongoing development of vPlan's functionalities and supporting services.
What was your journey before joining vPlan?
My ICT career began with a vocational training in Business Services with a focus on System Administration. At that time, I was only 15, quite young, and by far the youngest in the class, but I was already 100% sure that I wanted to work in ICT.
I did my vocational training internship at Vrieling Adviesgroep, an insurance intermediary with a real estate and mortgage department. After the internship, I continued working there and saw the company grow from 35 to over 100 employees. In the beginning, I was the entire ICT department, and I saw it grow to a team of 10.
While working at Vrieling, I completed an evening HBO study, earning a bachelor's degree in Business Informatics. I deliberately chose not to pursue pure informatics because I didn't see myself coding exclusively until retirement. At the time, I saw it more as a hobby, which surprised my classmates, considering my strong affinity for programming.
After 9 years at Vrieling, I was ready for a new challenge. During that time, I performed various ICT tasks and felt it was time to deepen my skills rather than broaden them. Initially, I looked into testing, but ultimately, I found my focus back on programming.
The specialization I found was at VerzuimSignaal (now part of Visma), where I worked as an integration specialist, connecting VerzuimSignaal with many other systems. The challenge was to understand and fully capture the customer's requirements and translate them into actual integrations. I enjoyed working there for 4 years.
I was ready for a new challenge and spent a few years freelancing for various companies. That's how I ended up at vPlan, among others. It was a familiar environment since I had worked with some of them before.
High confidence in vPlan's work methodology and product made it easy for me to decide to join vPlan on a permanent basis after a while.
How long have you been working at vPlan?
Over 3 years, since the very beginning of vPlan.
As mentioned, I've known the owners Jeroen, Michel, and Michiel for a while; back then, vPlan was still in its infancy. I even doubt if we called it vPlan at the time. From the start, there was a desire for standard integrations, and they asked me to work on them quite quickly.
In addition to integrations, I'm closely involved with vPlan's backend. One of my goals is to make the API as 'third-party'-friendly as possible.
What gives you the most energy?
It may sound cliché, but I get the most energy from satisfied customers and partners. Some time ago, a partner posted on LinkedIn that vPlan was an example of how an integration should be, mentioning, among other things, the level of documentation on our support and the visual representation we provided.
That's something we've aimed for, of course, but to hear such confirmation from a major company gives me the energy to make it even better.
I also get energy from setting up something completely new. The journey to the solution is sometimes difficult and draining, but when all the pieces fall into place, it gives me a tremendous amount of energy.
What do you find most challenging about your work?
Holding myself back. I tend to want to account for all possible scenarios, which sometimes goes too far and takes too much time. Often, the standard solution is sufficient for our customers.
The challenge is always to deliver the most beautiful and complete functionality possible in a relatively short time. In my opinion, we're doing quite well in achieving that!
If your colleagues had to describe you in 3 words, what words would they be?
Perfectionist, animated, and empathetic..
What do you like to do most in your free time?
Free time? What's that? 100% vPlan, all the way ????..
No, kidding aside, when I'm at home, I'm sometimes still programming. With personal projects, I constantly try to expand my skills and techniques.
One thing I definitely enjoy is a quest I set for myself a few years ago: to visit all the restaurants in Zwolle. Within the canals, I've been to 37 so far, but Zwolle has many restaurants, so I'd say I'm around 65% now.
I'd also like to say that I enjoy reading fantasy books, but it comes and goes; it's been a few months since I last read a book.
Lastly, I really enjoy occasionally preparing a multi-course menu in the kitchen. My colleagues at the office have had the pleasure of enjoying a delicious cheesecake a few times.
