eBay Overview
eBay is a worldwide auction site that was founded by Pierre Omidyar on September 3, 1995 in San Jose, CA. It was originally called AuctionWeb and was part of a larger personal site. The very first item sold on the site by Omidyar was a broken laser pointer, to a collector of broken laser pointers.
The name of the company was oficially changed to eBay in September, 1997. The company went public in 1998, making Omidyar and the first eBay president, Jeff Skoll, instant billionaires. The company has since purchased many other related companies, including PayPal, Skype and a percentage interest in Craigslist. As of this writing they employ over 12,000 employees worldwide, and are headquartered in San Jose, CA.
eBay Company Culture
From the eBay website: Our business model is a little unusual. We don't build cars. Or computers. Or yo-yos. But we build something just as important. Communities. We've created a place where people can come together. Exchange ideas. Share experiences. And expand their own businesses. It makes our users feel like they're part of the family. And that feeling goes double for our employees. That's what's so great about eBay—we're literally changing the face of commerce every day. Do we have it down to a science? Of course not. We're learning as we go. Succeeding together and challenging each other to constantly refine and improve our way of working.
Our people are the reason we've come this far. And the reason we'll succeed tomorrow. So as we grow (and we are), we'll try our darndest to retain the fun, community feeling that makes eBay so unique.
Jobs at eBay
There are thousands of openings at eBay worldwide as of this writing. Some of the popular technical openings include the following:
- Software Engineer
- Web Developers
- Technical Project/Program Managers
- QA Engineer
- Network Engineer
- System Administrators
- Database Administrators
eBay Compensation and Benefits
- Medical, dental and vision insurance from the date of hire.
- Life Insurance, AD&D, short term and long term disability.
- Flexible spending accounts, Employee Assistance program
- Business Travel Accident insurance
- PTO starts at 16 days per year, with an additional day added for each year of service up to 20 days per year.
- Holidays - 10 holidays per year, plus one floating holiday of your choice
- Sabbatical After five years of service with eBay, you are eligible for 4 weeks of time off with pay.
- 401k plan with participation eligibility on hire, 100% vesting in all contributions (including employer contributions) and a 100% company match up to $2000 per year.
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Employee Referral Program – Up to $1000
- Charitable Contribution & Gift Matching
eBay also offers a lot of additional perks, including the following:
- Work/Life Balance Toolkit
- eBay Development Workshops
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Adoption Assistance Program
- Ergonomic Consultations
- Pet Insurance
- Onsite Conveniences including: complimentary beverages and snacks, ATM’s, onsite dry cleaning, massage, auto detailing, oil change, hair cut and dental cleaning – just to name a few.