Meet Pinterest’s Internship Mentors of the Year | by Pinterest Engineering | Pinterest Engineering Blog | Sep, 2024
Our internship program truly inspires employees to bring their best self to work every day. Our program has mentors across the business that help interns develop their skills to create a career they love. Our Mentors of the Year have shown exceptional dedication in guiding and supporting our interns on their professional journeys. Discover how being a mentor has helped them advance their own careers at Pinterest and find out what inspires them.
In this blog, we’re joined by Irena Lee, Software Engineer I; Ricardo Casilimas, Software Engineer II; Lily Liu, Sr. Data Scientist; Sujay Khandagale, Sr. Machine Learning Engineer; and David Xue, Sr. Machine Learning Engineer to give you a glimpse into their time mentoring our 2024 summer interns.
Irena Lee
Tell us about yourself!
I’m Irena, an iOS engineer on the Mobile Builds team. Our team focuses on Android and iOS build times and stability both locally and on CI. I started at Pinterest right after college and have been here for exactly one year now. I’m based out of NYC and love going to the new office but also love taking advantage of PinFlex to travel frequently.
Why did you become a mentor?
In the past, I actually had a few internship experiences at other companies where I didn’t feel supported and mentored by my team. As a result, I often questioned if I was cut out for a career in software engineering. When I joined Pinterest, I had no background in iOS or builds. However, right from the start, my team made me feel comfortable and supported through the learning curve. I was encouraged to take the time to learn and onboard instead of feeling the immediate pressure to perform. When we were given the opportunity to have an intern this summer, I wanted to pass along the incredible mentorship I’ve received in hopes that our intern would have a much better experience to look back on.
As a mentor, what stands out as the most unforgettable moment while guiding our interns?
I was lucky enough to have the chance to meet our intern in person. Even though it was only her second week, she joined our org in Mexico City for an onsite. We had the opportunity to grab dinner together the first night there, which was a perfect chance to get to know her in something other than a work setting. I think it helped set the foundation for a strong mentorship dynamic.
Ricardo Casilimas
Tell us about yourself!
My name is Ricardo, an iOS engineer working on the ATG Products team. Our team does fascinating work using generative AI and LLMs to build new user experiences that delight Pinners and keep Pinterest as the most positive (and interesting) app on the market. I am based out of Miami, and one of my favorite hobbies is cooking, so I spend a lot of time on Pinterest exploring what recipe I can create next!
Why did you become a mentor?
The most impactful moment of my career was my internship in 2021. I was completely fresh to the world of software engineering and tech. I had very little confidence in myself. I entered the internship prepared to work hard but worried about my capabilities. Thanks to my amazing mentor, manager, and team, I had the most rewarding work experience in my life and learned so much. But the most important thing I gained was the belief in myself that I could learn, grow, and find my own place in this industry. The number one reason I became a mentor was to give that same experience back — to give an intern the confidence, the skills, and the foundation to build a happy and successful career. And of course, to have a fun summer the whole way through!
As a mentor, what stands out as the most unforgettable moment while guiding our interns?
I think for me, the most rewarding and unforgettable part of my mentorship experience was towards the end of the internship seeing the growth of my intern. My intern had a great first half of his internship, but there were definitely areas of improvement and growth that my manager and I pointed out to him.
A specific example was one mistake he had made during his first half was a minor UI bug having to do with dark and light mode on the iPhone. I remember being so impressed and proud when I was reviewing one of his later PR’s and saw that he had included, in the PR summary, videos of the feature he had built in light and dark mode. He was so determined to not repeat the same mistake again and grow from it, and I knew that moment he was/is going to be an amazing software engineer with that level of attention to detail and ability to learn and grow from feedback and his mistakes.
Lily Liu
Tell us about yourself!
I am Lily, a senior data scientist on the ads delivery team. My team’s scope includes identifying issues and inefficiencies in the delivery funnel, analyzing ranking models, and improving ads performance. In my four years at Pinterest, I have had the pleasure of working with a wide variety of teams, including ads measurement, retrieval, ranking, privacy, etc. I recently moved to San Francisco from South Bay and am now eagerly exploring the city. In my free time, I like to play pickleball, make floral arrangements, and go hiking.
Why did you become a mentor?
I was a Pintern myself a few years ago! I worked on an impactful project and learned a lot from my mentor. After joining Pinterest, I have jumped at opportunities to give back and mentored junior members on the team. I was so excited to mentor Becky and help her to find her own career path. Mentoring has always been a rewarding experience for me. I find that as I explain analysis methodologies and findings to my mentees, I also question my own assumptions and often get fresh ideas on directions to look into.
As a mentor, what stands out as the most unforgettable moment while guiding our interns?
I enjoyed seeing my intern Becky in person everyday in the SF office. We were able to have in depth discussions and work through problems together. Whenever we worked on a hard problem together, her eyes lit up when the solution started to click. Becky quickly learned to navigate ambiguities and solve problems independently. By the end of the summer, other colleagues started to come to Becky to ask questions. I am so proud of how much she has grown.
Sujay Khandagale
Tell us about yourself!
Hi, I’m Sujay, a Machine Learning Engineer on the Search team at Pinterest. I’ve been at the company for the last two years, building machine learning models to make Pinterest Search more personalized and relevant! In my day-to-day, I work on cutting-edge machine learning models (eg. transformers and foundation models) to help Pinners find what they are looking for from hundreds of billions of Pins. In addition to this, I also work on building an inclusive search experience at Pinterest to make Pinners feel represented on the platform. Some of the things I’ve worked on include the skin tone filters and body type technology.
Why did you become a mentor?
I have always found mentorship to be quite rewarding — the joy of collaborating and helping others reach their full potential is truly fulfilling for me. I believe that mentorship is also a powerful tool for personal and professional growth — it enables me to share my knowledge and experience with others. At Pinterest, I have been fortunate enough to have some amazing mentors like Bhawna Juneja, Prabhat Agarwal, and Yuting Wang, who have greatly inspired me. Becoming a mentor gives me the opportunity to give back to the community by building a more supportive environment at Pinterest.
As a mentor, what stands out as the most unforgettable moment while guiding our interns?
The most unforgettable part about mentoring my intern, Edoardo Botta, was how quickly he was able to ramp up onto the Pinterest Search stack and build, train, and deploy a foundational model end-to-end. This required brainstorming over countless whiteboard sessions at the office and navigating through stacks of blockers we met along the way. The process of guiding him through these stages was immensely rewarding and the highlight of my mentorship experience. Another highlight of this experience was also the daily lunches I had with Edoardo and the other Palo Alto interns — getting to know them and the amazing projects they’re working on!
David Xue
Tell us about yourself!
My name is David, and I am a Machine Learning Engineer based in San Francisco, working on the ATG Visual team (also known as the Applied Computer Vision team). Our relatively small team tackles a wide range of applied modeling problems, including visual search, detection, segmentation, generative AI, and more. Over the past five years, I have primarily worked on 0→1 projects at the intersection of product and machine learning. As a result, I have a diverse full-stack experience spanning modeling, backend, and even some frontend development. I have contributed to various projects such as Inclusive AI (skin tone and hair pattern technology), AR/3D (beauty and home decor), and most recently, generative AI (image generation, visual LLMs, and multimodal embeddings). What I have loved most is the creativity, empathy, and innovation required to think about how new technologies can enhance the Pinner experience!
Why did you become a mentor?
I actually started at Pinterest as an intern on the same team! Reflecting on my experience as an intern, I remember how empowered I felt by my mentor, Josh Beal, who encouraged me to take ownership of significant projects that I initially doubted I could handle. Since high school, I have always enjoyed education and tutoring, and mentorship has always been the most rewarding aspect of my career. Every week, I learn something new from my intern, whether it’s questioning my own assumptions while explaining a modeling concept or gaining fresh ideas on how we can improve the product. The best moments of mentorship for me are when I feel like I learn more than I teach.
As a mentor, what stands out as the most unforgettable moment while guiding our interns?
One of my most memorable moments was my intern Joyce Yuan winning one of the top prizes at Makeathon! Makeathon is our annual internal hackathon at Pinterest that brings people from across the company together for a week to build new ideas. Joyce, despite being an intern, showcased her skills and passion by leading a large team of interns and full-time employees. Without Joyce, the project wouldn’t have even gotten off the ground. The coolest moments for me are those where an intern takes a project further and in new directions than I could have imagined.
To learn more about engineering at Pinterest, check out the rest of our Engineering Blog and visit our Pinterest Labs site. To explore and apply to open roles, visit our Careers page.
