It’s no coincidence that Future Pathway alumni are leading Salesforce Equality groups, shaping the future of AI in the workforce, and coding Salesforce’s newest features.
Future Pathway interns join Salesforce with a mission to challenge themselves, grow their careers, and make an impact. The interns’ diverse professional experience sets them apart from interns from other programs.
I recently caught up with five Future Pathways alumni to hear about their work, reflect on their internship, and ask what advice they have for future interns.
Here is what they had to share!
Selene Is Tackling Accessibility Bugs
Selene Tenorio, Software Engineering AMTS, started her career in marketing. Born and raised in Toluca, Mexico, she moved to Seattle shortly before the pandemic. After learning programming basics on YouTube, Selene found Ada Developers Academy.
“What stood out was how ADA celebrated non-traditional backgrounds, and made you feel that your story and experiences were what made you unique.”
-Selene Tenorio
After completing Ada’s six-month curriculum, Selene joined Salesforce as a software engineering intern with Tableau’s Viz Rendering & Interactions team. She said it was the people who made her experience. Her managers, director, mentors, and the Future Pathways team were all important to her success.
In March, Selene stepped into a software engineering AMTS role on Tableau’s Interactive Analytics team. “My team focuses on building and improving the features that allow users to interact with their data in a dynamic way … We work on things like filtering, drill down tools, and other product interactions that help users explore and understand their visualizations.”
In her first few months, Selene tackled a backlog of accessibility bugs, including ensuring filtering tools are navigable via both keyboard and screen reader, a key function for users with visual impairments. Selene is proud of the journey she went on to get to this point in her career, she is happy that her work is meaningful, and she looks forward to taking advantage of all the learning opportunities Salesforce offers.
Christabel Elevates Commerce Cloud’s Search Functionalities
Christabel Escarez, Software Engineering MTS, pivoted to engineering after a career as an analytical chemist. A friend encouraged them to apply to Ada, a suggestion that Christabel said, “fundamentally changed my life.” Christabel is now part of the Search Team, which primarily focuses on developing and enhancing the search bar and search functionality for Salesforce’s Commerce Cloud customers.
“I’m really proud that I care about the people around me and the work that we do.”
-Christabel Escarez
Christabel’s shared one of their most recent wins includes, “Acting as my team’s Scrum Lead for the last two releases. I love helping my teammates track work and communicate more effectively so we can be more productive as a whole team.”
As the very first Salesforce Ada Intern, Christabel has also officially or unofficially mentored nearly every Ada intern cohort since 2021.
They share their internship experience, normalize self-doubt, and emphasize the importance of documentation for performance reviews, 1:1s with managers, and promotion cycles. Christabel even generously shares their own win-tracking templates with new interns.
Lourdes Strengthens our Customer Connection
Lourdes Zaragoza, Software Engineering MTS, learned about Ada through Reddit while completing the Odin Project, an open source coding curriculum. After deciding to leave the non-profit sector, she landed at Salesforce in early 2023 as a Software Engineering Intern on the Product Security Team.
“One of the most valuable lessons I learned is the importance of communicating early and often. We don’t know what we don’t know, but if you are able to fill in those around you, they can help fill in gaps along the way and often save time and headache in the long run.” – Lourdes Zaragoza, Software Engineering MTS
On the Product Security team, she researched, designed, and implemented a feature to enhance Salesforce’s security posture. More recently, she shifted to the Idea Exchange Reimagined team, which is responsible for the IdeaExchange website, where customers can drop implementation ideas for Salesforce product managers (PMs).
“My work has had a meaningful impact on both my team and the company by helping strengthen the connection between PMs and our customers,” said Lourdes. “By contributing to a platform that allows PMs to share their roadmaps and gives customers a space to share feedback and insights, we’ve created a direct, transparent line of communication.”
And when it comes to her future, Lourdes shared, “I am really happy here at Salesforce and plan to stay for the long run. I really enjoy my team and the work we do. Salesforce also has a ton of opportunities for growth, so I know my options are not limited.”
Marcus Designs the Future of Work
Marcus Stevenson, Senior Manager, AI Augmentation and Role Redesign, completed his internship in 2017. He joined Year Up United because, “it offered a practical, skills-based education combined with corporate exposure through an internship. It represented a direct bridge from where I was to where I wanted to be.”
During his internship, Marcus joined The Office of Equality as it was being started, which gave him the opportunity to build things from scratch.
“A major highlight was co-found[ing] and helping to manage the Office of Equality’s Speaker Series with my then colleague Gino Ramos, who was a wonderful mentor,” said Marcus. “This wasn’t just a coordination role; it was my introduction to building a platform for powerful conversations for a massive internal audience of over 40,000 employees at the time.” – Marcus Stevenson
Since his internship, Marcus has stepped into a number of roles at the intersection of program management and talent and leadership development. These experiences brought him to his current role on the Workforce Innovation team.
“I serve as the Senior Manager of AI Augmentation and Role Redesign, leading cross-functional initiatives to help redesign key business units across the company,” said Marcus. “We’re setting the precedent for how an AI-augmented workforce will drive growth at Salesforce, which is foundational for our competitive edge.”
Saiye Drives Solutions and Leads BOLDforce, Chicago
Saiye Pierre was born and raised in Chicago’s South Side. She learned about Year Up through a friend who was completing an internship at Salesforce. After attending an info session, Saiye was all in.
By August 2021, Saiye was a business development associate intern supporting account executives (AEs) focused on Marketing Cloud. Throughout her internship, Saiye supported the AEs with prospect sourcing, engagement analytics, and proof of value (POV) reports.
During her internship, Saiye also embraced learning Salesforce, a completely new technology and platform for her. When asked to share advice for new interns, Saiye said, “Curiosity is golden! This environment may be new to you, but don’t be afraid to ask anyone a question.”
Saiye was also encouraged to participate in Salesforces Equality groups and she joined BOLDforce (Black Organization for Leadership and Development). There, she expanded her network and was exposed to the many roles that exist across the company.
Towards the end of her internship, Saiye learned about and applied to Salesforce’s Scout Academy, which is designed to train and prepare individuals for solution engineer roles.
Today, Saiye is a senior solution engineer for Core GRB, and a Field Services subject matter expert, with a focus on small-to medium-sized businesses. Her day-to-day involves constant enablement on Salesforce products to support nine AEs, as well as leading client discovery calls. She identifies and translates complex business needs into high-impact solution presentations. “I enjoyed the aspect of solutioning and trying to curate a story,” she says.
While Saiye has had many successes throughout her Salesforce career, including presenting to large customer audiences during Salesforce’s Connections and World Tour events, she is deeply proud of her involvement with BOLDforce. Today, she is the vice president of BOLDforce Chicago and helps facilitate member events, volunteer opportunities, and welcomes new Salesforce employees to the company.
To Sum it Up
Selene, Christabel, Lourdes, Marcus, and Saiye are just a few examples of Future Pathways interns who arrive at Salesforce with diverse experiences and go on to make a big impact.
Ready to join our community?
Learn more about our Future Pathways program and other workforce development initiatives at Salesforce.
