It's all about who you know and not what you know at this company - Product Marketing Manager eBay Employee Review

2.0
Apr 7, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Talented co-workers, good perks, vibrant member community

Cons

There's an unhealthy focus on ivy league pedigrees and being in the right circles/knowing the right folks is the key to getting promoted. The management is filled with consultants from Bain or career-eBayers who have been with the company since the inception, who in turn hire more of their own. And then there are those who left the company and were brought back under the "new" management, which makes it clear that things aren't going to change at this company any time soon. Ex-CEO Meg Whitman is hugely popular although she is responsble for little other than series of well-planned photo-ops. She rode the wave of success, but dropped the ball when the going got tough and left a mess behind for others to clean up. She hand-picked her successor and apparently still calls the shots as an "advisor". The focus at this company is no longer on innovation, it's all about cost-cutting (or jacking up the selling fees). The frequent waves of layoffs (disguised as re-orgs) are taking a toll on the morale, with many talented folks looking for new opportunities.

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5.0
Jul 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Challenging work, great company culture. There is something genuinely motivating about building for a brand that everyone knows and uses: the scale and real-world stakes make the work feel meaningful. The AI work specifically is at the frontier of applied AI: production systems, hard problems in agentic workflows and evaluation, and real customer impact. Good work-life balance. Leadership is more engaged and technically credible than I expected from a company this size — when I built a prototype, senior stakeholders engaged substantively and supported continued investment quickly. Competitive compensation, sharp colleagues, and a well-sized Austin office with a focused, collaborative feel.

Cons

Like any tech company, there is some legacy code to deal with which can cause friction. That said, eBay has made meaningful progress on modernizing the tech stack and has genuinely embraced the latest tools: AI development here uses current frameworks and infrastructure, not decade-old patterns. Large company coordination processes (security reviews, cross-team alignment) can slow things that could move faster, and vendor partnerships add some communication overhead. But the reach of what you build makes it worth the extra overhead.

3.0
Jun 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Relaxing culture. family first. Stock performance is generally good for the recent two years and huge benefit if you're eligible for ESPP. Stable product with large customer base means you get opportunity to work on project with real impact.

Cons

1. Blind push for AI and leadership expect unrealistic efficiency improvement 2. Layoff every year in Feb (2024, 2025, 2026) and sometimes can feel the tension in team 3. Legacy tech stack with isolated and fragile infrastructure. Developer friction is a real pain. You get random infra down every once a while and internal support becomes even worse since they started offshoring to LCOL area in 2025. 4. Hiring freeze in San Jose... just expect more layoff coming up + frequent meetings at night / early morning across regions

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