eBay’s sturdy, digital internship program brings collectively college students from 70 completely different universities and schools this summer time, fostering the way forward for ecommerce amongst our enterprise, expertise and advertising and marketing groups. Our Intern Highlight Collection options interviews with this newest class of eBay interns as they discover their future profession paths.
For Helen Kim, interning at eBay has been a novel alternative to discover her twin passions: enterprise and expertise.
This summer time, the Cornell College pupil is engaged on the Licensed Refurbished workforce, performing development analyses based mostly on purchaser and vendor suggestions.
“If I had been to make use of one phrase to explain my internship to date, I might say it has undoubtedly been transformative,” mentioned Helen. “My time at eBay has genuinely clarified my profession purpose to be a choice maker on a data-driven workforce.”
Helen not too long ago spoke with us about navigating her profession path and the way she is leveraging alternatives for skilled growth whereas at eBay.
How have your mentors been supporting you all through your internship expertise?
Mentorship has been an integral a part of my intern expertise. For instance, my workforce gave me the lead on decoding uncooked information for our vendor well being dashboards, which has taught me quite a bit about undertaking administration and information evaluation. They’re at all times desperate to reply my questions or share their business information, resembling instructing me finest practices for speaking with sellers and how you can use eBay-specific dashboards.
They’re additionally dedicated to furthering my skilled growth. Not too long ago, I used to be on a name with my mentor Quy, and we ended up discussing my profession targets. I requested about how I may promote my profession progress, and he gave me recommendation about when and how you can pursue alternatives to go to graduate and enterprise college. That is simply one of many many ways in which my mentors recurrently verify in with me. It’s clear that they need me to study as a lot as potential throughout this internship, constructing not solely my technical expertise but in addition my community of business contacts.
My supervisor Zainub and the College Recruiting and Applications workforce have been useful assets as nicely, connecting me with individuals on completely different groups at eBay. I’ve gotten to community with different interns and workers and attend speaker collection that includes members of our government management workforce. Each have been invaluable in serving to me increase my skilled community and expose me to the cross-functional, extremely cooperative nature of our firm.
What’s one factor that you’ve discovered to be distinctive to your workforce?
The tempo and the character of my work have been actually distinctive as a result of I’m working in a extremely small workforce inside eBay’s Licensed Refurbished program. My workforce has the power of a scrappy tech startup however the assets and duty of the bigger eBay firm — that means I get to expertise one of the best of each worlds. I’m given unbelievable possession over my tasks, which I’ve discovered to be empowering, however there may be additionally an immense degree of help accessible after I want it. Though my place and tasks are extraordinarily area of interest, the payoff has been so rewarding as a result of I can see the outcomes immediately in motion on our world platform.
How has engaged on a “scrappy” small workforce influenced your profession plans for after school?
I’ve discovered that I actually like engaged on a small workforce whereas having the assets of a bigger entity like eBay at my disposal. The Licensed Refurbished workforce has so many additional layers of insulation that help us, and it’s good to have a smaller, nuclear workforce with whom I can reliably join and construct lasting bonds.
This internship has additionally clarified my profession targets by serving to me notice how passionate I’m in regards to the enterprise facet of tech and the relationships that drive it. Enterprise in tech is an increasing area, and there may be at all times one thing to be executed. I by no means need to cease studying or really feel unfulfilled in my work, both personally or professionally.
What do inclusivity and empowerment imply to you?
These are actually phrases to stay by. Being part of an organization that’s motivated by doing good is extraordinarily vital to me. I really feel that each undertaking I’ve undertaken at eBay, from uncooked information evaluation to creating new vendor dashboards, has been in one of the best curiosity of enhancing our neighborhood of consumers, sellers and entrepreneurs pretty and equitably.
My workforce members additionally empower me personally by sacrificing their very own time to show me new arduous and gentle expertise one-on-one and in workforce conferences. Their selflessness and belief in me has proven how firmly they consider in investing in everybody, from sellers and consumers to workers and interns. Having this mindset to be for everybody strengthens my workforce’s skill to enhance the vendor expertise by folding empathy and variety into our strategic method.
What is going to you’re taking away out of your summer time internship expertise?
The surprising connections I’ve made this summer time, particularly with my fellow interns, are ones that I can be taking with me. The opposite Cornell interns and I recurrently join by means of a Cornell-specific Slack channel to speak about our tasks and different life updates. Our micro-communities of interns, organized by the College Recruiting and Applications workforce, have additionally been an superior technique to join with interns throughout a broad vary of fields and study their areas of experience. Constructing a community of outgoing and welcoming friends who share my curiosity for tech and company social duty makes me really feel so fortunate to have had the chance to develop my profession at eBay.