eBay in Person: Anna Baum

Anna Baum leads the Content Engineering Support Group, an international team of software engineers that is responsible for creating and maintaining static HTML content on eBay's websites. The Chatter team talked to Anna about working at eBay.

How long have you worked at eBay?
I'm in my fifth year at eBay. I started in the company in March 2000.

Describe your area of responsibility.
I manage a group known as the Content Engineering Support Group. My team includes people from all over the far-flung corners of the eBay world. We have people in San Jose, California, in Europe, and also in the Asia-Pacific region. We work closely with several groups within eBay to make sure that our static HTML pages are created and updated with up-to-date text, pictures, hyperlinks, and navigation.

Although we don't write the text or create the pictures ourselves, we're responsible for maintaining the behind-the-scenes code that creates these pages. Examples of pages we help create include promotional pages like the Fall Fashion Blowout, Homepage updates, the Site Map, Help pages, and many more.

What are your top priorities?
My biggest priority is to support any group within eBay that needs to create, update, or delete content on static HTML pages. To give you an indication of the size of this effort, we create about 500 new pages every quarter. And that's just for the U.S. site. When you include eBay's other sites and around the world, it comes to a whopping 1500 pages a quarter!

Another key priority is to keep improving the processes and tools that we use to create and manage content on the site.

What skills have you found yourself utilizing most in your career at eBay?
One of the most important skills I learned early on in my eBay career was the ability to juggle multiple priorities at the same time. This is especially important considering that our team supports so many groups at eBay with different needs.

What are some of your most memorable eBay moments?
I remember the time in December 2001 when my team members from all over the world came together for our first team summit in Madrid, Spain. Until that time, many people on my team hadn't met each other face-to-face, so it was very exciting for everyone to be in one place. After hours, when the team was exploring the touristy sights of Madrid, we had a running joke going: “What do you call an Italian, a Spaniard, a German, and an American in one cab in Madrid?” The answer, naturally was – eBay's Content Engineering Support team!

It was great to see people from different backgrounds and different parts of the world, coming together to discuss ways of improving processes to make eBay better.

What do you like to do for fun?
I love to travel. Each year I try to take a vacation to a place that's off the beaten track. Recently I went to the Borobodur in Indonesia – one of the most fascinating places on the planet. I'm always excited to meet new people and get a glimpse of different cultures.

What's the most rewarding part of your job?
The fact that, every day I get to make positive contributions to eBay's amazing global Community. And the fact that I help keep eBay's websites running.

What is your favorite item that you bought or sold on eBay?
Once when I was visiting Milan, Italy, I saw a red Furla handbag that I really liked. I went away without buying it, and regretted it all the way home. When I returned to the U.S., I looked for the bag on eBay – and found it! I bought it immediately. It was a real find – I love it!

Who are your role models?
Oprah Winfrey. I think she's the most positive person in America. I admire her for being a very “real” person and continuing to inspire everyone to be the best person they can possibly be (and not change the way they are).

What's unique about working at eBay?
The most incredible thing about working at eBay is the feeling of being part of the eBay Community. With so much negativity in the world these days, eBay is such a refreshing proof of the basic human value that “people are basically good.” I never cease to be amazed at how many positive person-to-person interactions take place on eBay every day. I firmly believe that this is the kind of thing that will keep the world intact.