Avantages
Great brand, and a great business, still, even though the business model has been effectively outmoded by the changes that have swept thru e-commerce in the past 5 years. Pierre Omidyar was and is a visionary with a truly unique business idea and a singular view of what the Internet can do for our society. It looks good on your resume -- even with the recent tarnishing of eBay's image and relevance, people still respect you for having worked there. There are some really fantastic people at eBay, at all levels of the company, even after many/most of the really great folks have moved on.
Inconvénients
Three words: politics, politics & politics. The working environment reflects Meg Whitman's own political style ... which is to say ruthless and passive-aggressive. Meg and her leadership team managed to transform Pierre's utopian vision and great business idea into a sharp-edged organization feeding the Street quarter to quarter. What a shame. Meg's gone now but the die is cast ... I'm still in touch with lots of friends at eBay and nothing's really changed -- except they renamed eBay Park "Whitman Campus" and now there's a Hooters across the street. I'll bet Meg's blueblooded sensibilities are deeply offended by that ... hilarious. Anyway, I ultimately left eBay because I couldn't square the incredible opportunity there with how they've sucked all the life out of Pierre's original vision. That, and because it's a sweatshop that inevitably burns people out and then tells them they seem less engaged. Wha??