eBay in Person: Brian Sweeney

How long have you worked at eBay?  I am in my sixth year. I started in February of 1999. Describe your area of responsibility. Currently I manage the Site Restoration team or Technical Duty Officers. My team is responsible for ensuring that the site runs smoothly. Whenever anything on the site doesn't run the way it should, we put it back into working order. What are your top priorities? We are focused primarily on Availability (making sure the site is always available for our members to use), Scalability (ensuring that the site's infrastructure can handle our growing number of users worldwide) and Operational Excellence (putting in place the right processes and solutions to keep the site running safely and smoothly).

Brian Sweeney at home in the Ops Center

What skills have you found yourself utilizing most in your career at eBay?
My most frequently used skills are common sense and problem solving. The team here at eBay is the smartest and most talented technical team I have ever seen. Usually it is enough to simply put a problem in front of people, and watch them figure it out.
 
What are some of your most memorable eBay moments?
I remember when the site experienced a 22-hour outage way back in the summer of '99, and my team had been up all night fighting the crisis in our “War Room”. There were pizza boxes strewn all over the room. Suddenly there was a blinding light shining through the conference window – it was a CNN crew filming us as we were bringing the site up again. That's when I realized that eBay's outage had made national headlines. Thankfully, we've never had a repeat performance. I have many memories from those early days. They have been some of the best bonding and rewarding experiences in my life.
 
What do you like to do for fun?
Mostly I like to play with my kids. Hiking, camping, playing with frogs etc. I like to read, as well, and I especially like talking with smart people about interesting things.

What's the most rewarding part of your job?
My strong relationships with the people I work with is the reason I work here. I love coming up with creative solutions to complicated problems with groups of smart, dedicated people.

What is your favorite item that you bought or sold on eBay?
I bought a 1970 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible (the longest production car ever built) on a whim two years ago which was just a scream.

Who are your role models?
I have many. At the top of the list would have to be my father. Growing up with him was like growing up in a Zen management training seminar.  

What's unique about working at eBay?
I believe that there are two things that separate eBay/PayPal from the rest of the world that are keys to our success:  The fact that we have an amazingly high concentration of extremely bright and talented people, and the fact that everyone here cares personally and deeply about our Community and our marketplace and what we are doing to help them be the best that they can be. As long as this remains true, I will be here.