Grow with Us: Divya’s Path from Intern to Software Engineer II

In 2022, Divya Karivaradasamy joined us to recap her experience as a Pinterest intern. After her internship, Divya received an offer to return to Pinterest as a full-time Software Engineer in 2023. Today, we’re excited to deep dive into her career path over the past three years and discover the impact she’s had on her team and our product. 

Hi Divya, welcome back to Life at Pinterest! Catch us up on your current role, home base and team. 

Hi! I’m a Software Engineer II on the Pinnacle team within Pinterest’s Monetization organization. I’m based in the Bay Area, and my work focuses on building internal tools that support Pinterest sellers. A big part of my role is helping create systems that make it easier for teams to do their work efficiently, which ultimately helps improve the experience we provide to our advertising and seller ecosystem.

How is the scope of your work different from when you were an intern? 

My Pinterest internship really set me up well for my full-time role, because a lot of the core day-to-day work still feels familiar. I continue to work across the full stack, break down large projects into smaller deliverables, test my work, and collaborate through code reviews.

The biggest difference now is the scope and time horizon of the projects I take on. As an intern, I was focused on shorter-term projects with a clearly defined goal. As a full-time engineer, I’m more involved in longer-term work that can evolve over time and requires thinking more deeply about tradeoffs, planning, and cross-functional collaboration.

When you reflect on your internship experience, what were a few key contributors to setting you up for success as a full-time engineer? 

One of the biggest things that helped me was learning how to navigate Pinterest’s internal resources. I spent a lot of time using tools to understand how different systems and workflows worked. That experience taught me an important skill early on: how to find answers independently and unblock myself when I run into something new.

Another big contributor was communication. During my internship, I made a point to stay in close contact with my manager and teammates, ask questions often, and talk through challenges as they came up. That helped me build confidence, learn faster, and feel more comfortable collaborating with other engineers.

How do you support or collaborate with interns or new grads? What advice do you usually share with them? 

I’ve had the chance to support early career talent in a few different ways, including volunteering at recruiting events and mentoring an intern last summer. It’s been really rewarding to give back in the same way others supported me when I was starting out.

The advice I share most often is to keep track of what you learn along the way. Write down useful technical resources, helpful wikis, and team-specific context you come across — future you will absolutely thank you. I also encourage interns and new grads to keep a running list of their accomplishments, even the small ones. It’s easy to forget how much progress you’re making day to day, and having that record can help build confidence and make it easier to share your impact with your manager.

Last time we chatted, Pinterest was helping you with outfit inspiration. What are you currently searching for or saving on Pinterest? 

Lately, I’ve been saving haircut inspiration and lots of bedroom redecoration ideas. It’s been fun browsing different styles, layouts, and color palettes. Pinterest is still definitely one of my go-to places when I want inspiration for a refresh.

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