eBay’s sturdy, digital internship program brings collectively college students from 70 totally different universities and faculties this summer season, fostering the way forward for ecommerce amongst our enterprise, expertise and advertising groups. Our Intern Highlight Collection options interviews with our newest class of eBay interns as they discover their future profession paths.
Intern Omotayo Akingba is spending his summer season analyzing eBay’s taxes. However the best takeaways of his internship have been the invaluable classes he’s studying about life — together with tips on how to be versatile in a brand new state of affairs and settle for ambiguity as a chance for progress and exploration.
“The largest perception I realized was that it’s okay to ask questions or admit that I don’t know the reply,” he stated. “In actual fact, doing so eliminates the stress of being good and encourages me to strive issues out.”
We just lately chatted with Omotayo, who’s learning enterprise and political financial system on the Faculty of Idaho, about his internship expertise and why it’s okay to say, “I do not know.”
What drew you to eBay’s summer season internship program?
My sister works as a monetary analyst at eBay and was really one of many inaugural members of the Finance Futures Program, a full-time rotational program that exposes latest school graduates to totally different finance capabilities inside eBay. She had advised me all concerning the folks that she works with and the totally different alternatives she’s skilled, so I assumed it could be price a shot to assist determine the following step of my profession.
I stumbled into my function with the Oblique Tax group, primarily as a result of I didn’t actually know what I needed to do. However I’ve come to grasp that my internship is extra about what I study than what I do. My group has been so supportive in exposing me to new studying alternatives and initiatives. For instance, they’ve been serving to me get licensed in Alteryx for knowledge analytics, which has opened the door for extra exploration in analytics work.
What a part of your internship has been particularly significant for you?
I meet with my supervisor Vanessa twice every week, typically extra, and more often than not, it’s past simply my initiatives. She needs to know the way I’m, what my plans are, how I’m transferring ahead, what I’ve realized. She has related me with a various group of individuals at eBay so I can study what others are doing on the firm and listen to their profession recommendation.
My group additionally holds biweekly conferences that we name “Breakfast and Learns.” These are team-building alternatives to come back collectively and pitch new initiatives — taking part has been integral to my studying. Presenting my very own concepts to the group has proven me tips on how to critically analyze and suggest my suggestions in a digestible means.
What has been your best problem at eBay, and the way have you ever realized from it?
The largest problem for me was letting go of the necessity to get issues achieved completely the primary time round. In school, there’s a aggressive mindset the place uncertainty about something means you get left behind. The actual world just isn’t like that, particularly in terms of a altering market that’s at all times evolving. So my philosophy proper now’s, “Do the very best you possibly can,” which is so liberating.
How have you ever contributed a contemporary perspective to your group?
Members of my group are always asking for my enter as a Gen Z scholar and are keen to listen to my opinions. Taxation is a hot-button subject for my era, so these discussions aren’t simply summary, however an essential problem to me personally. Due to this, it feels actually rewarding to deliver my perspective as a scholar to the Oblique Tax group and take part within the conversations concerning the work we do.
How have you ever seen inclusion at work at eBay?
The truth that leaders at eBay know my identify speaks volumes concerning the firm’s dedication to inclusion and empowerment. For instance, the College Recruiting and Programming group just lately organized a Q&A occasion with one in all our govt leaders, and when he answered my query, he addressed me by my identify — Omotayo, which shocked me as a result of Zoom shows my center identify on display. We had solely spoken briefly one different time, however he remembered me. From that interplay alone, I may inform that eBay is critical about being a group for everybody, from the latest interns to probably the most senior executives.