How she bagged a job at eBay

Ellora Nath who recently bagged a job offer from eBay walks us through the rigorous interview process and tell us how she cracked it. Read on

Ellora Nath is certainly not your average woman.

From being a board topper to a pageant contest winner she has done it all.

She is also one among the very few people to be selected for the Indian School of Business' Young Leaders Programme.

If that wasn’t enough she recently bagged an envious job offer from eBay.

In a candid interview here, she talks about the interview process and why she chose eBay over other companies to kickstart her career.

What makes eBay so special? Why did you decide to join eBay?

When we sit for campus placements, the process is mostly dominated by the pressure of getting 'a' job, usually not 'the' job.

When you choose 'the' job, it should be aligned with your interests, domain, work-life balance, location and so on.

I took the plunge mainly because its a great fit.

eBay is one of the best e-commerce companies globally and is hailed as a great place to work for.

Besides, retail therapy has always proven good for us women, it excited me to be behind the scenes.

Can you describe the complete hiring process of eBay?

The process commenced with a written round.

It comprised about 40 odd questions and a design question.

Candidates were shortlisted for the next round based on their performance in the written round.

Four more rounds followed the written round -- there were two technical rounds and two techno-behavioural rounds if I might call it.

They were taken by the director and the hiring manager respectively.

I was one of the few who escaped the HR round but more often than not you can expect an HR round before they confirm you.

What was the toughest question you encountered and how did you answer it?

Well I wouldn’t say one question, I'd rather stress on the fact that it was a very comprehensive interview.

I had questions on data structures, databases, algorithms, operating systems, Linux commands and puzzles thrown at me.

Questions spanned across domains and just surface level knowledge wouldn't have cut it.

I remember one question where they gave me a scenario involving some transactions between the sellers and buyers.

I had to elucidate my understanding of the databases involved and there were some complex Structured Query Languages (a type of programming language) for retrieving desired data.

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What is the application process for companies like eBay?

Campus placements and off campus drives. I got lucky with a call from the HR for the interview but one should hang out at their websites to find open positions.

eBay has a very strong referral programme too. You could leverage that.

Can you talk about what resources did you refer before the interviews?

I had some DSA-OS-DB (Oracle database) slides as a takeaway from college.

Also websites like careercup and geeksforgeeks has good preparatory material.

I had also gone through everything in my resume (projects, particular algorithms, slight technical details mentioned) before my interview with the hiring manager. That really helped.

What were some important factors according to you that made you stand out?

I think it was just my day. I was well prepared.

Having a job in hand ensured I wasn’t a nervous wreck.

I think if know your stuff well, you can hold your ground in front of the panel.

Currently, what are you working on and how has the experience been so far?

I am in the Buyer Experience Team at eBay and work there as a Product Development Engineer.

My work is JAVA Based, we work on eBay specific technology stacks.

It's been an awesome one month.

We have a swanky new office in Bangalore now and the employees are really well taken care of at eBay.

Now that I am here, you’ll definitely start buying a lot more from eBay. To everyone who's applying here, I wish you good luck!