eBay reviews

Good for people who can build trendy stuff for demos just so that their managers can attract attention of others and senior execs and get promoted during the performance evaluation period. It's sad to see that managers are considered higher in ranks over software engineers so in the end even when software engineers know the right thing, they are forced to do what their managers want. Some managers even micro manage your day, like asking your status 2-3 times in a day, checking on your code commits on a daily basis, and sometimes even being rude by asking what did you do today at the end of the day. There's too much technical debt and none of the managers are interested in working towards clearing that mess, meaning it will keep getting bigger and bigger. I have also seen some managers reviewing code of the architects and giving feedback as if like peer reviews even though they are not the other person whom the architect had worked with directly at code level. Thus the process of getting the code through all the way to production takes several weeks to 2-3 months

Based upon how you look at it this can either be a pro or a con. eBay pays very high if you consider the RSUs, ESPP, 401K etc. But the work assigned you will be someone with even mediocre skill will be able to do easily. If you are a talented engineer with a desire to learn something new or do something of value run away from here because you will be doing very dumb work and surrounded by even more dumb people. However, on the other hand if you want to just draw a stable paycheck and get promotions by pleasing your boss then run in and join. Very little solid engineering done here, most people are focussed on making half baked products, doing demos and poster sessions and throwing them out of the door. When other engineers who use your product complain provide workarounds and assurances that the problems will be taken care of in the next release. Of course a re-org or something similar will follow and very soon the problem will fall into another clueless engineers lap. Most of the top execs in eBay are moving to Paypal since they think eBay is a sinking ship. I worked in what was considered as the most technical team of whole of eBay the condition in the rest of the company is even worse and talented engineers are going insane. Along with technology, the management philosophy and techniques are also outdated. eBay blindly promotes people who deliver half baked products in timely fashion to managers who then force their developers to do the same. eBay still doesn't realize like the other Bay Area companies that strong developers work for autonomy to implement their ideas and creativity and not simply for a paycheck. Being outdated it still relies on paying more money and doesn't do simple things like providing food which is now common in most Bay Area startups. Not to mention that most of the managers are technically clueless or micro managers. I personally don't know even one developer who is happy if not outright frustrated. Don't believe any of the 5 star ratings. This is probably given by the HR and it's cronies. Notice how all the 5 star ratings are very short and terse.