Chris - eBay's First Employee

At the insistence of his sister, Angie, Chris attended a Jackie Chan movie one night in 1995 with his sister, her fiancée, and another couple. Although Chris did not have a date that night, he ended up having a date with history.

The "other couple" in attendance just happened to be Angie's friend (and soon-to-be best man at her wedding) eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and Pierre's fiancée, Pam.

"At the movies, I told Pierre that I was unhappy with my job, and he started scratching his beard the way he does - thinking. He asked me what kind of a job I was looking for, and I said 'anything to help you.' He said he could use some part-time billing help until the small business that he had got going," Chris says.

Pierre told Chris to come over to his small apartment where he ran his one-person business, and bring a resume. "I remember laughing in my head during the interview because I couldn't believe I actually needed to go through a formal interview when I was the only person applying for the job, and Pierre was the only other person at this place," Chris says.

About two weeks after the interview, Pierre called Chris, and Chris officially became eBay's first employee. He initially worked out of Pierre's home. As the company grew, Chris followed eBay to progressively larger headquarters in Sunnyvale, California; Santa Clara, California; and to eBay's current location in San Jose, California. "It's been pretty exciting," Chris says. "I never knew it was going to grow this big! As the billing administrator, I used to process about 60 checks a day, and now I get two big basketfuls a day. Additionally, rather than being a department of one, the billing staff has grown to twelve people."

Chris enjoys his job, and says he especially likes working in the Billing department with the other billing team members. "We're very supportive of each other," Chris says. "We help each other out. We're really like family," he says. Carla, Chris's co-worker, echoes his sentiment. "I have known him for about a year, and I treat him like a brother," she says. " We talk about almost everything. I give him advice on work and non-work topics. He is one of the shyest and modest people I know, yet he knows everybody here. He's everybody's friend, and everybody is his friend."

Chris also cites "learning new skills" as one of the best parts of his job. "I feel that there are a lot of opportunities here for growth."