Pintern Life: Claire Camacho on finding community at Pinterest

Meet Claire Camacho, one of our inspiring 2025 Pinterest summer interns. In this article, explore Claire’s Pinterest journey, learn how our PIndigenous Pinclusion group influenced her decision to apply and go through a day in her life working in our New York office. 

Welcome to Pinterest, Claire! We’re so excited that you’re here to share more about being an intern at Pinterest. Let’s start with an introduction.

I’m Claire Camacho, a summer intern at Pinterest! I just graduated from MIT with a degree in Computer Science and Neuroscience, and I’m continuing my Master’s studies there. I’m a backend engineer intern on the Innovative Ad Formats team. We’re a full-stack team that develops advertising on the platform, ranging from standard ad pins to collages and videos. Our objective is to make ads as enjoyable and effective as the organic content.

What inspired you to join us? 

Pinterest exists at a rare intersection: challenging technical work with an interesting and ethical product. A lot of apps can make you feel good when you’re using them, but Pinterest is the only one that I still feel good about even after I’ve closed it. It has a funny way of inspiring you to improve your life, without making you feel bad about the one you’re already living. 

You shared that blogs written by our PIndigenous Pinclusion group helped you learn more about community at Pinterest. Which blogs did you enjoy the most? 

I first found out about PIndigenous from the Inside Pinterest page on the career site. Right below the values and benefits blurbs, there’s an intro by Brodie Gullic, one of the co-leads of PIndigenous. He said the group let him “bring his whole self to work”. I’ve always felt proud to represent Indigenous Chamorro people in tech, but it's been a quiet, lonely pride. 

PIndigenous on the other hand is visible and intensely welcoming. Within minutes of introducing myself in the Slack channel, people I had read about were reaching out to say hi, like Jordan Skye Paul from the Women& Series feature and Alison Quaglia from the 2024 Native American Heritage Month article. 

Take us through a day in your life as an intern. 

9:00 am: My day starts with emerging out of the subway into the Union Square farmers market, where I pick up ingredients for dinner. At the office, I grab some breakfast and cold brew while I plan my work. Mornings are my focus time to get some Pull Requests finished! 

12:00 pm: Once I’ve sent over my work for my mentor to review, I head to the cafeteria with the other interns. The New York office provides free lunch Monday through Thursday and brunch on Friday.

1:00 pm: Afternoons are more meeting heavy, with project check-ins and coffee chats. My current project collaborates with Mobile and Android engineers, so it's vital that we communicate well. Sometimes I also have a coffee chat with an engineer in the office or one of my remote team members. 

2:00 pm: My daily check-in with my mentor! We go over my progress and scope my tickets for the next week. I also DM my mentor and teammates throughout the day to ask questions.

3:00 pm: I spend the rest of the day coding. Protecting blocks of time like this minimizes context switching, which improves my productivity.

5:00 pm: I grab post-work ice cream with intern friends!

Which Pinterest board is currently bringing you the most inspiration? 

I’m saving apartment design content right now. Post-college life is fast approaching, and I’m prepared to make the most of my first apartment! Some things I have my eye on are a soy sauce fish lamp and a curated coffee station.

Searching for more information about our internship program? Visit our University Recruiting page.