software engineer

senior software engineer

customer service representative

director

senior product manager

eBay

This has been a great experience to test my personal skills and work ethic to the max. The job is not incredibly labor intensive nor are their long hours but, the work is weighted differently during the course of the week. Typically, per start of the week (usually Friday and Saturday) I gather the auction items, photograph them, write the individual descriptions, write the various conditions out in detail, list the items, and then monitor the auction for the duration of the time limit. During the course of the auction, I was responsible for answering questions, monitoring bids, or sold items, negotiating terms of the auctions with interested customers, packing items, shipping items, inventory management, and ensuring quality control at the time the item is received by the customer. While, the job does not have strict set of hours per say, it does require constant computer/technology monitoring and a very high level of persistence to ensure that customer's needs are met. In addition to that, I was responsible for the products to be received as the listing has outlined. If the item was not received as described, I was required to then fulfill their needs through customer service to ensure that they had been treated with respect and the problem had been solved to the best of my ability. More times than not, that meant bending over backwards to make sure the customer was happy. Thankfully, I have not had too many issues but, every time something did not go as planned; I can honestly say I learned something to better help myself down the road. Also, it makes getting positive feedback from a happy customer even more rewarding knowing that I did the job perfectly. I have really enjoyed the "weight" that this job entails. What I mean by "weight" is that all the responsibility of the  job falls entirely on my shoulders. I do not have anyone else to blame if things go wrong but, I also do not have anyone else to thank when I do my job correctly. I have to manage the items, be the photographer, pack, ship, buy, sell, answer phones or emails, advertise, promote, and provide customer service. Most jobs have individual professional careers for those positions I listed in order to fulfill all of those responsibilities. Having to wear all of those hats at once has really made me appreciate multi-tasking and having to answer to only yourself. All the success, the strides, the achievements, and the problems are a result of me and me alone. Their is truly something special about having to answer to yourself, being your own boss, and being your own motivator to push harder. It makes working with others much better as well. I know what I can do, what I can handle, what I am good at, not so good at, and has made me even more of a team player. From this job, I am more confident in my abilities so I can be more help to those around me because they will never have to pick up my 'weight.' I know what I can handle from being the owner of my eBay storefront.

This is the kind of job that I doubt I could stand for more than two years. Yes, it seems easy (from an outsider looks in perspective). We get to sit down for 8-hours a day and basically do nothing. (Almost) all of the information is laid out in front of you, and you just need to assist the customers in the best way that you can. It sounds great, and simple (which it honestly is) if it weren't for the people who are actually calling. I would say about 90% of the contacts you receive are because the person is experiencing some sort of problem. Many people are angry, and they are not afraid to take it out on you. It's not that I as an agent take it personally, however the negative vibes definitely wear you out. After a full-time work week of hearing people complaining, moaning, cursing at you, and basically calling you the biggest idiot they have ever had the displeasure of speaking to, you wonder how some people have done it five days a week for 5, 10, 15 years. I could never. I would literally rather do ANYTHING else than work at this company longer than I have to. 

As a chat and email agent, you are also expected to take phone calls at a moment's notice, while still maintaining the email/chat productivity expectations. This is fine every now and then, but incredibly infuriating when it is an everyday occurrence. Particularly frustrating is the fact that the management of my department can't seem to get their act together long enough to realize the huge and unhelpful scheduling errors they are accommodating. I work a late night shift, leaving a few hours past midnight. Usually, I am one of two people in my entire department at the end of my shift. Daytime shifts, as coveted as they are, are far overscheduled... to the point where massive amounts of people get sent home every day, leaving service levels to begin spiking around 8 or 9 p.m, when coverage starts to thin. This kind of timing mistake is so easily noticeable to everyone. Everyone, but the people actually in charge of the schedule. 

Advice: if you are an upcoming agent and your vertical features an "amazing" email and chat team... do not join it. Under any circumstances. If your vertical is anything like mine, then your supervisor will expect you to do three times the work of a phone agent while upholding far more stringent quality standards, for the same $10.00 an hour. It is totally and completely not worth it, unless you have a short temper and are easily irritated, in which maybe the phones would not be the best option. Either way, every training session you go to for new partners or tasks basically just means that you are earning the company more money while making barely over minimum wage... so don't stress too much over this job. Pleasing the customer is far less important than your sanity and blood pressure.

eBay is a chimera--the experience working there can be whatever you want it to be. If you prefer to lay low, do your job, and leave work at work, there's a place for you here. If you have a career goal in mind and want to experience a different department or move laterally/upwards, management is supportive and works with you to achieve your goals. 

The benefits are fantastic and start day one. You know when you call your health insurance company and they mention you have one of the best plans they offer, you're sitting pretty. Free therapy sessions with a therapist of your choice for you and your family. Free access to wellness programs like Grokker, Cleo, and Grand Rapids. Short and long term disability. Sabbaticals. Parental leave. Personal leave. Work from home. Employee stock plans. Retirement contribution match. The list goes on. 

In the numerous positions I've held at eBay, I've always felt I was treated not just fairly by management, but truly cared about. 

Downsides include the perpetual bureaucracy. Upper management is numbers-driven and it takes vocal, persistent employees who truly possess a passion for the future of the company to spark a change. Hearing common mantras filtered down by upper management such as "it's all about the member experience" and then actually seeing the numerous, asinine hoops members are forced to jump through needlessly is maddening. Performance targets constantly shift quarter-by-quarter--efficiency always being priority one--but upper management can't be bothered to ensure tools/software functions to a workable degree. Teams are large and direct management is usually just two people, which results in a chunk of time spent drafting reminders to direct managers just to have simple tasks completed. 

The culture is inclusive and engaging (moreso when in the office). eBay is undeniably a Silicon Valley company in the sense that much of the culture is married to leftist politics. The blatant political leanings of the company are welcomed by many, but some employees find this behavior alienating. 

Overall, eBay is an employee-centric workplace with excellent benefits and a relatively clear path to pursue interests. Starting on the bottom and working your way up is quite attainable. As an employee, I feel heard regarding the impact of work on my life. I do not feel as strongly heard when it comes to affecting change in regards to departmental policies and procedures, which often hamper the ability to perform efficiently and logically. 

The good: a lot of nice, amicable, good-hearted people. Generally, there's flexibility towards individual needs. Decent benefits. And, alas, ideal for low-achievers whose priorities are not career or high pay. Pay is middling. Okay, but not stellar, far below the bigger fish.

Cons: everything else. The company has heart and tries to live its "people are good, and so are we" motto, but it's uncompetitive, wildly inefficient, disorganized, and in its "day 2," where it's desperate to survive while competitive forces and PESTEL factors weaken it further. Our strategy? Squeezing revenue from our sellers through ads, while only making minimal efforts to attract new buyers. The potential for greatness remains if we adopt a radical, dramatic approach to revolutionize the buy/sell experience, starting with our inadequate search and UI for the B2C side, instead of cluttering it.

Leadership is in no small part to blame. Most of our current hires in middle management and above are excellent internal salespeople who've had an enduring relationship with eBay for decades but lack knowledge about markets, how technology has evolved, or even sound operations management. Many have been and are still constantly promoted or reshuffled due to office politics and reorganization. Most leaders fail at the basic management principles of understanding the key success factors for business objectives and capturing the essence of their people's performance. The problem being, especially for director-level and above, these folks are old and entrenched in their roles.

So, ultimately, we barely promote and just have people's roles and scopes balloon in size. Then, we either refill or expand by hiring external candidates who are either overqualified and desperate or underqualified and good cultural fits (on paper). We then pay these people a premium, but if we're good, we lose them because A) the pay is insufficient, and B) promotions are given to those playing politics or spending half their time promoting themselves. Be that for insignificant projects that leadership can't or fails to evaluate the impact of properly, or just trying to curry favor with higher-ups.

We are hampered by convoluted systems and processes, a not-so-good tech stack, and we use unfair, counter-intuitive metrics for evaluations at all levels that rely on bias. Our category strategy has been underwhelming, now focusing more on extracting every last cent from our sellers through ads while barely trying to attract new buyers. The momentum from our COVID years has faded, and younger buyers are hardly aware of eBay.

The company is quite large, so you need to do your part to make it small. It's best to make sure you are working within a team and organization that is important to the company though that can change from one minute to the next. Also, if you don't work in San Jose, you're at a disadvantage when it comes to career development and advancement. 

You also MUST HAVE visibility and a good relationship with your organization's leadership. And they must be positioned well politically and be highly visible with the company's executive leadership. If you don't have this, then you don't have job security at eBay. Period. 

And working in a technical domain area can be detrimental. Many of the senior leadership only have a superficial understanding of the more technical domains. Unfortunately, that doesn't prevent them from making misguided, impactful decisions that set the company back. 

On a related note, company leadership does not know how to evaluate talent. This shortcoming is an epidemic for the company and one of the main reasons why they struggle to attract and retain top talent. They reward people who are not very well thought of by their peers. People who are focused more on managing up than on execution. 

Doing good work is not enough to be successful at eBay. That makes for a very untrusting and insecure culture. Nobody is sure when the next round of layoffs is coming, who will be impacted, or why certain decisions are made. 

It's also becoming very bureaucratic. Executive leadership will have reviews, then organizational leadership will have another version of the same review, and then a team leader will have yet another. This pattern follows with all-hands and townhall meetings. At some point, it should occur to them that they are consuming about 10% to 20% of their organization's time preparing for and then attending repetitive reviews and meetings. The chaotic annual planning process only makes things worse. Often times the outcome of the over-engineered process is scrapped before the end of January. 

In summary, eBay is more political than technical. Your relationships are more important than the work you deliver. Morale is low because the company keeps shuffling priorities and laying off people in an unpredictable manner that does not reflect their performance or contributions. And the executive leadership is blind to the fact that the company is becoming increasingly bureaucratic and less effective.

eBay sells themselves to you quickly. You learn eventually that, as realistically expected, the amazing things you're hopeful about are really only just pretty good.
Applying for leave for medical emergencies or wellness or really any type of leave is DIFFICULT. So much so that most people end up returning from surgeries or treatments that require bed rest time without approved leave (regardless of doctor notes and paperwork submission, etc..) and are told they can't miss a single work day for 90 days or their job will be considered.
The leadership only advances their favorites. They tell you that if you are not 100% for eBay, and willing to comply without question, they can't consider you. 1930's Germany would have a heyday with that one. So as a result, the leaders don't seem to be able to think for themselves most of the time. Doesn't make it great when there are one-offs or personal things that need consideration. Also creates really terrible work environments and lots of friction in each department. You can see exactly how that affects the company by seeing turnover rates.
They do offer some free snacks one time a day Mon-Fri (sorry for you weekend peeps), and have soda, water, coffee, juice, and tea for free.
You get a gym membership for free on-site, but it's small. No outdoor anything. You don't get any R&R, so when people are screaming in your ear and threatening you and your family, the most you get is a few minutes to sit in the hallway or walk around the building. Other comparable companies offer much better than that. You, on average, have 8 minute long calls, all day, with a minute or less between calls. two weekly meetings, and if you're lucky, a development meeting one time a month to fine tune some skills.
Your coworkers will be awesome nerds with big dreams, cool hobbies, and a huge desire to be friends. Every department is like this. If you did not have to interact with your leadership at all, or they worked remotely, I'd give this job 5 stars. The sense of "team" seems to only be true with the CSRs. On the rare occasion, a coach or team lead will fit in there, too.
I think that promotions should be decided by the CSRs, not the management that has zero real interaction  with the team, and only takes formulated reports by leaders with personal agendas that take the forefront of their priorities on the job.

A typical day at work - Getting yelled at by unreasonable "buyers" and "sellers" that are upset about eBay's backwards policies and messed up payment system. Management checks on and reports stats daily, questioning anything even slightly below 95% and threatening the team with write ups weekly.
Morale is LOW, team often ignores management in the team chat, probably due to the constant threats of write ups and performance improvement plans regardless if almost all of your metrics are perfect. They will always find something to pick it and belittle you over, so forget the monthly bonus you can supposedly attain.

Management - By far, the worst management I've had in 10 years of working experience. They take their job ridiculously seriously and suck any semblance of team spirit out of the job. Daily metrics shoved down your throat and threats of write ups instead of actual coaching and leadership. Management does not care about your work/life balance.

Culture - I was promised multiple "promotions" which were actually lateral moves without a pay raise, that never happened. I'm actually glad because the promotion would have been to a much more difficult position WITHOUT an increase of pay.
eBay workplace culture is the most fake positivity I've come across. After training, the experience is completely downhill. eBay's asinine policies which lead to customer frustration become your fault in the eyes of management.

Hardest part of the job - Maintaining the motivation to clock in every day and deal with the same screaming and insults over and over for 8 hours, back to back. Leadership has little empathy and expects you to take customer abuse and wave a magic wand to fix every situation, even those out of your control. I felt like retaining my sanity at this job was the hardest part at the end.

Most enjoyable part of the job - Medical, dental, and vision benefits were good and ability to work from home.

If you can handle getting berated by customers and "leadership" for 40+ hours a week, this job is for you. If not, for the sake of your mental health and dignity, look elsewhere.

Typical day at work involved catching up on emails and sorting work requests. I would then check my ticket queue, perform work that had a quick turn around, then plan how to perform larger projects. Some days I would get to devote the whole to day to developing applications and scripts to automate or remove human errors from the process.

I was able to learn how controls and monitoring systems work with physical devices for the support of a data center. I was also able to continue learning new things, as has been the case throughout my career, that weren't necessary for my immediate job duties, but became an asset for my team and company.

The management teams at ebay are great, i didn't have a lot of contact with upper level management team, but they did hold town hall meetings that were broadcasted to other locations and helped me feel included in the overall progress of the company, and help me see the big picture. My direct management were helpful, understanding and showed me examples of how to make decisions and help me understand why a certain decision was made. 

The hardest part of my job was understanding how the more technical functions of the monitoring system would break and stop working. I would eventually find a solution, which was rewarding, but some solutions seemed to temporary fixes.

The absolute best part of my job came out of my desire to automate some job duties, which my manager encouraged me to continue, which was coding in C# and to learn and polish my understanding of coding. I love being in the zone and figuring out how to get logic and processes to work to ease the more tedious parts of my job. Programming is the best part of my job now.

eBay was my first call center job. It started out really great. The 8 week training was comprehensive, and fun. After 4 months of being in production, the department I was hired for was dissolved and split into several other departments. 
I moved to a new department and got a raise. At first this was great, but I quickly became disillusioned as the leadership and management support suddenly didn't exist.  There were all sorts of information - policies, resources etc that weren't provided in the training and without leadership/management to go to, I began to feel very overwhelmed. 
This was in March of 2019 - that I began to feel overwhelmed. I left eBay in May 2020 because it finally became too much. Things gradually got worse. More department changes were made and more and more we were expected to work in areas that I wasn't trained in. For more than half of my two years at eBay I felt overwhelmed, undervalued, and stressed. With the events of Covid-19 my perspective changed. At first I was lucky. While my friends and relatives were getting laid off left and right, eBay gave us all computers and sent us home to work.  As I said, this was initially good, but the only thing that kept me working at eBay and able to deal with he stress was the fact that work was so far away from my home. Once work and home were forced to be one, I couldn't continue with eBay anymore. The support of leadership and management was severely lacking while we were all working in the same building - it was impossible to feel supported and get the assistance I needed over Zoom meetings. I lasted about 6 weeks working for eBay from home.

Working at eBay gave me the opportunity to work on challenging global programs across Financial Services, Regulatory Compliance, Trust & Safety, AI, and Customer Experience. A typical day involved balancing multiple priorities, collaborating with Product, Engineering, Operations, Legal, Finance, and Customer Support teams, and solving complex business problems in a fast-paced environment.

I learned a tremendous amount during my time there, both professionally and personally. The breadth of the work allowed me to develop expertise in marketplace operations, financial services, regulatory programs, AI-enabled process improvement, and large-scale program management.

The people were one of the best parts of working at eBay. I had the chance to work with talented, collaborative colleagues who genuinely cared about customers and supporting one another. Leadership varied by organization, but overall I found managers approachable and willing to empower teams.

The hardest part of the job was balancing constantly evolving priorities while managing multiple global initiatives with many cross-functional dependencies. It required flexibility, strong communication, and the ability to adapt quickly.

The most enjoyable part was the variety of work and the opportunity to continuously learn, improve processes, and contribute to initiatives that had a real impact on the business and customer experience. Overall, I would recommend eBay to anyone looking for a collaborative environment with meaningful work and opportunities for professional growth.

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