When you work on something you are excited about, big things can happen. At eBay, our interns are immersed in the excitement and the energy of a leading tech company from day one. From participating in Hackathons to having a chance to talk to our CEO to working on projects that actually matter for the business, students in our University Program join our employees to work toward a larger purpose.
When we bring an intern on board at eBay, we see the value in the person and his or her skills—every eBay Intern is treated as a potential future hire. This year, we set our sights on making sure the students in our intern program were as diverse as our workforce, workplace and marketplace. We recruited at a broader set of universities in the U.S., including historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and colleges with significant populations of women. We’ve also built recruitment partnerships with CODE2040, Lesbians Who Tech, Management Leadership for Tomorrow, the Anita Borg Institute and The United Negro College Fund to further extend and expand our recruitment efforts.
Check in with some of the stellar interns from our 2017 cohort and hear about why they chose eBay and what they learned about working in the tech industry—and about themselves.
Get Inspired: Meet Some of Our 2017 Interns
Roger
College: University of Southern California
Class: Senior
Studying: Business - Real Estate Finance
eBay Team: Systems
Highlights: Served two tours in Iraq as a Marine
On what makes eBay different…
eBay is a great place to have an internship because it invests time and money in its interns toward professional development. That really hits home with me because other companies sometimes feel less personal, but the culture at eBay creates a very collaborative, motivating and inclusive environment. eBay has given this 30-plus-year-old Marine veteran an opportunity to build his brand, and I hope that they continue to open their doors to students with nontraditional backgrounds because that makes them a vehicle for social mobility.
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Christyne
College: Carnegie Mellon University
Class: Masters Candidate
Studying: Human-Computer Interaction
eBay Team: Design, Research & Strategy
Highlights: Former social worker interested in human-computer interaction
On the interview process and the people…
I had two offers coming in. I chose eBay because of the interview process. It’s much warmer and the people have done their research. They seemed genuinely interested in you, the person. One of the highlights for me was the leadership being so accessible. It really helps because it makes you feel like you are really part of the team.
I’m always going to remember the networking and the advice people gave me. I didn’t realize the opportunities that existed. I learned how I can position myself for these opportunities.
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Dajour
College: Morehouse
Class: Freshman
Studying: Computer Science & Economics
eBay Team: iOS - Product Related Pages
Highlights: Builds apps in his spare time
On how his outlook has changed…
This internship has changed my perspective of what I think a future work environment can be. eBay’s culture is a very relaxed one—not in the sense that people aren’t maximizing their efficiency—but in the sense that work doesn’t feel like you are sacrificing a portion of yourself to be here, it's simply a natural extension. You get to do something you enjoy every day, which has increased my curiosity in unfamiliar CS topics tenfold and has increased my expectations for a work environment. I've realized that I can be in technology and have a great work life balance in the future.
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Ijemma
College: Dartmouth
Class: Sophomore
Studying: Computer Science & Japanese
eBay Team: My eBay C2C
Highlights: Taught herself Java
On what advice she has…
You never know enough—you can always learn more. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. You should never feel comfortable with what you are doing—if you are, you need to be doing something more challenging to test your knowledge.
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Ryan
College: UC Santa Cruz
Class: PhD Candidate
Studying: Psychology and Computer Science
eBay Team: Design, Research & Strategy - Prototyping
Highlights: Second time interning at eBay
On why he interned with eBay twice…
I came back a second time for the culture. Here, I never really felt like an intern—once you remove the titles, we’re all just people.
When I came back, there was no warm up period. I was with the same manager and the same team. And I feel like there is more longevity to the work that I’m doing by coming back a second time. All I’ve been doing this summer is exploring new prototyping methods in research and user testing.
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